Senior defender Isack Bandu broke the scoring for the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team, but five unanswered goals from the home team sent the Saints to a 5-1 loss against No. 10/11 Cornell on Friday night at Lynah Rink in Ithaca, N.Y.

St. Lawrence saw their three-game winning streak end with the loss and fell to 7-23-3 on the season and 6-14-1 in ECAC play, while Cornell improved to 19-8-1 and 14-6-1 in league action.

The Saints' top line of Rasmus Svartström, Tyler Cristall, and Cooper Pierson got the game started on the right foot, creating some early chances in the first minute of play. St. Lawrence continued their strong play after a 4-on-4 chance when Gabe Westling found himself on a breakaway behind the Big Red defense. Alexis Cournoyer came up big with the pad stop to keep the forward off the board.

After controlling the first five minutes of play, Cornell had a golden chance on the doorstep but was stoned by Cameron Smith with 14 minutes to go.

On the other end, Svartström had another strong chance when he went in on a 3-on-2 with his linemates but couldn't cash in. The two teams had some looks late in the first, but the game ended up going into the intermission tied at 0-0.

The Scarlet and Brown got off to another strong start in the second period, and Isaac Tremblay nearly broke the tie after a weird bounce forced Cournoyer to make a huge save on the sophomore forward.

The Saints were given a penalty moments later and went on the kill. The best chance of the two minutes came from Gabe Westling, who nearly buried a Jan Olenginski feed, but missed the net to keep things at 0-0.

The scoring finally broke in the second half of the second when St. Lawrence broke the scoring. Cayden Casey gained control of the puck as the Saints entered the zone and dished a pass back to Jake Lammens, who hit his linemate Bandu. The senior wired a shot through traffic and past the netminder to take the 1-0 lead.

The lead wouldn't last long as the goal seemingly woke up the Big Red offense. Xavier Veilleux, Nick DeSantis, and Caton Ryan all scored in a 4:27 stretch to give Cornell the 3-1 lead.

St. Lawrence had their first power play chance with 1:38 to go in the middle frame, but despite some strong chances, they went into intermission down 3-1 with 22 seconds left on their man-advantage.

The rest of the power play came and went as the third period began, and Cornell continued to roll with all of the momentum. The Big Red took a 4-1 lead thanks to a George Fegaras goal, then extended the lead to four goals with a breakaway goal from Ryan Walsh at the midway point of the third.

The Big Red smothered the rest of the game to earn the win.

Smith came up with 28 saves in the St. Lawrence net, while Cournoyer made 14 for Cornell.

Both teams came up empty on the power play, with the Saints going 0-for-1 and the Big Red going 0-for-2.

St. Lawrence will be back on the ice tomorrow when the Saints head to Hamilton, N.Y., for their final game of the regular season against Colgate at the Class of 1965 Arena at 7 p.m.