The Garnet Chargers got off to a hot start, and the Saints battled back to within two goals in the third period, but the deficit proved too big to overcome as the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team fell 8-5 to Union on Saturday night in Appleton Arena.

St. Lawrence fell to 6-13-1 on the year and 2-5-1 in ECAC action in the loss, while the Garnet Chargers improved to 12-8-1 and 6-4-0 in league play.

An early turnover from the Saints snowballed quickly to start the game as Nate Hanley intercepted a pass and scored two minutes and seven seconds into the game. Union proceeded to capitalize on St. Lawrence, who were given three penalties in the first eight minutes and ten seconds by scoring on all three chances.

Parker Lindauer made it a 5-0 game at the 12:36 mark when much like Hanley, he intercepted a pass and wired a shot home for a shorthanded tally.

On the same power play, the Saints got a goal back when Jan Lasak found Felikss Gavars entering the zone. The junior dropped a pass off to Drake Burgin, who gave it right back to Gavars. The forward fired a one-timer home to make the score 5-1 before the end of the first.



St. Lawrence was able to gain another piece of ground in the first six minutes of the second period with a goal from Greg Lapointe. Philippe Chapleau had the puck in the defensive zone and sent a pass to Ty Naaykens, who zipped an outlet pass to Lapointe on a breakaway. His shot burnt Luca Massie to make it 5-2.

The 5-2 score lasted into the third period where Union made it a four-goal game just one minute and 35 seconds in.

The Scarlet and Brown once again found themselves on the penalty kill midway through the third and earned a shorthanded goal of their own. Naaykens once again fed a great outlet pass, this time to Reilly Connors, who one-touched a pass to a streaking Mason Waite. The senior captain beat the goalie five-hole to keep a glimmer of hope alive.

St. Lawrence would pull the goalie late and get the game to within two. With the Garnet Chargers hemmed in, Gabe Westling centered a pass that was tipped by Jan Olenginski in front. The puck leaked out to Lasak, who buried the shot on the doorstep to make it 6-4 late.

With the goalie still on the bench, Union's Brandon Buhr tallied an empty-net goal to send the see-saw game back to a three-goal game.

The goal scoring was far from over as in the last 35 seconds, Mason Kucenski and Spencer Bell combined to get the puck to Isack Bandu, who came in and made it a two-goal game once again at 7-5.

The Garnet Chargers tacked on another empty netter in the final six seconds as the wild game ended at 8-5.

Kucenski finished with 19 saves in 48:08 of work off the bench, while Massie stopped 27 of the 32 that came his way.

The two teams combined four five power play goals, two shorthanded goals, a pair of empty-net goals, and an extra-attacker goal in special teams action. St. Lawrence held a 32-30 edge in shots on goal in the contest.

The Skating Saints will head back on the road next weekend when the team heads to Providence, R.I. on January 17 for a game against Brown, followed by a trip to New Haven, Conn. for a matchup against Yale.