Julia Gosling's two goals and Emma-Sofie Nordström's 31 save effort powered the seventh-ranked St. Lawrence University women's hockey team in a 4-1 victory over the 13th-ranked Yale Bulldogs in game one of the ECAC Quarterfinals at Appleton Arena in Canton, N.Y.
 
Nordström was calming presence in the Saints goal from the start of the first period. Yale had an early power-play opportunity, but the sophomore goaltender and SLU's penalty kill negated the Bulldog power play.
 
St. Lawrence gained its footing as the period progressed and had a strong second half to close the scoreless frame.
 
Yale narrowly outshot SLU 12-11 in the period.
 
Early in the second-period, Taylor Lum drew a tripping penalty to give the Saints lethal power play an opportunity. The St. Lawrence power play, operating at 32.2 percent, struck. With the player advantage, Sarah Marchand entered the offensive zone and sent a pass to Mae Batherson. She then faked a shot and passed to Gosling, whose rocket from the top of the circle beat Yale goaltender Pia Dukaric glove side. Batherson recorded her 36th point of the season with her primary assist on Gosling's goal, breaking Annie Guay's single season points record for a defender, which she's held since the 2005-06 season.
 
The Saints maintained their 1-0 throughout the middle frame, especially in the last five minutes, thanks to Nordström's key saves. The SLU goaltender had 22 saves through two periods.
 
In a big third period, the Saints rose to the occasion. Katina Duscio extended the St. Lawrence lead to two, less than four minutes into the period. The sophomore's fourth goal of the season came off a play that associate head coach Mare MacDougall Bari said "the defender practiced endless times in practice since winter break." On the play, Abby Hustler sent a wraparound from behind the net, which was deflected by Anna Segedi to Duscio, and her shot surprised Dukaric and tipped off her glove and into the net.
 
Segedi's great individual effort five minutes later gave the Saints a three-goal lead. In a puck-protection masterclass, Segedi weaved through multiple Bulldog defenders and beat Dukaric around her blocker-side pad.
 
Despite the three-goal deficit, Yale would not go down quietly. The Bulldog's Gracie Gilkyson tapped home a rebound to finish off a transition opportunity and cut the St. Lawrence lead to two.
 
Just three seconds after Gilkyson's goal, the Saints were called for tripping. Yale had a chance to completely change the momentum of the game, but SLU's penalty kill came up big and did not allow any serious scoring chances.
 
Gosling added a late empty-net goal to seal the win for the Saints.
 
"We found a way to get the win tonight. Another great crowd in Appleton for the game," said head coach Chris Wells. "It is great to see and feel the support for our team. We capitalized on our power play on a great shot by Julia which gave us some confidence. Yale then outplayed us after that goal for a long period of time. Emma made some great saves to keep it 1-0."
 

 
Nordström finished with 31 saves in the win, while Dukaric stopped 18 shots in the loss.
 
St. Lawrence finished 1-1 on the power-play, while Yale went 0-2.
 
"We found our stride a bit in the third and had to work hard to close the game out with a PK and some solid efforts in our zone," added Wells.
 
The Scarlet and Brown improved to 26-9-0 overall with the win, while Yale fell to 16-14-1. 
 
The two teams faceoff once again tomorrow at 3 p.m. in game two of the ECAC Quarterfinals. If SLU wins, they advance to ECAC Championship Weekend. Come out to Appleton to support the team!