First-year forward
Rasmus Svartström scored late for the Saints, but the comeback effort came up short as an empty-net goal lifted Vermont to a 2-1 win over the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team on Friday night at Gutterson Fieldhouse in Burlington, Vt.
With the loss, the Saints fell to 0-3 on the season, while the Catamounts improved to 1-0.
Both teams had trouble solving the goaltenders early in the contest as
Mason Kucenski and Aiden Wright stood tall in goal.
The best chance of the first period came from the Saints when
Isaac Tremblay found himself on a break but was stymied by Wright.
St. Lawrence and Vermont once again came up scoreless after the second time despite both teams having chances on the power play. The Saints had a late power play chance in the middle stanza and applied heavy pressure just to see a penalty called the other way to end the threat.
After a scoreless first 40 minutes, Vermont broke through just 52 seconds into the third period. With the referee's arm in the air for a delayed St. Lawrence penalty, Caeden Herrington finished off a feed from Sebastian Törnqvist and Colin Kessler to give the Catamounts a 1-0 lead.
St. Lawrence had another chance on the man advantage minutes later, but Wright stopped quality chances from
Tyler Cristall,
Andrew Brown, Tremblay, and Svartström in the barrage.
Vermont added an empty-net goal from Zachary Filak with 1:25 to play to extend the lead to 2-0.
Svartström gave the Saints life with 30 seconds remaining, scoring his second goal of the season with the extra attacker on the ice. Filip Juříček carried the puck into the zone and cut right in front of the Vermont goal. The puck was knocked away, but his classmate was at the right place at the right time to cut the deficit.
Despite a late timeout and another push with the net empty, the Saints couldn't complete the comeback.
Mason Kucenski made 22 saves in his first start of the season, while Vermont's Aiden Wright stopped 29 shots to earn the win in his collegiate debut.
St. Lawrence went 0-for-2 on the power play, while Vermont was 0-for-4 with the man advantage despite scoring with the extra attacker.
The Skating Saints and Catamounts will finish off the home-and-home series on Sunday at 4 p.m. when they line up for a rematch at Appleton Arena. After the game, fans are welcome to head to the ice for Skate with the Saints presented by the Friends of St. Lawrence Hockey.
