Filip Juříček scored late for the Saints, but a pair of empty-net goals stymied any comeback bid as the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team fell 4-1 to Union on Friday night in Appleton Arena.

The Saints fell to 4-22-3 overall and 3-13-1 in ECAC play, while the Garnet Chargers improved to 16-9-2 and 6-8-1 in league action.

Union controlled the game early in the first half of the period, but Cameron Smith held the Chargers off the board.

St. Lawrence turned things around after the media timeout and nearly broke the scoring late. Numerous Saints had good scoring chances in the final seven minutes, but Brayden Gillespie made five saves to keep it at 0-0.

The Chargers once again came out of the locker room strong in the second period of play and applied heavy pressure in the first four minutes. St. Lawrence had some chances of their own, but Union finally broke through at the 9:49 mark when Tryo Pelton fired a shot through traffic and in for the 1-0 lead.

The Scarlet and Brown had to kill a penalty later in the second period, but Smith and the penalty killing unit held strong to keep it 1-0 at the second intermission.



The first half of the third period was played mostly in special teams. After a 4-on-4 ended in the first two minutes, Union went on the power play at the 2:56 mark, but once again was stopped.

St. Lawrence got two great chances ahead of the media timeout with a pair of power play chances. Despite applying heavy pressure, Gillespie stood tall to keep it a one-score game.

Despite the Saints holding the momentum, Union would capitalize on another screen to double their lead. Carter Rose fired a long-distance shot through traffic and in to make it 2-0 with less than five minutes to play.

St. Lawrence emptied their net in the final three minutes for the extra attacker, but Union's Lucas Buzziol caused a turnover and cashed in with an empty-net tally moments later.

The Saints once again pulled Smith as the game approached the final two minutes and scored their first goal of the game. Juříček collected the puck and passed it over to Cayden Casey, who skipped it to Tyler Cristall on the left side. The senior sent it back around to Casey, and eventually to Juříček, who wired a one-timer past Gillespie to give the Saints a heartbeat of life.

Union, however, would score another empty-netter in the final three seconds to make it 4-1.

Smith stopped 30 shots for the Saints, while Gillespie had 24 for Union.

Both penalty kill units were perfect, with the Saints going 3-for-3 and the Chargers going 2-for-2.

St. Lawrence will be back at Appleton tomorrow at 7 p.m. when they host RPI.