Boxscore

HAMILTON, N.Y. -- The numbers were all wrong for St. Lawrence University's hockey team in game three of its ECAC Hockey first-round series at Colgate Sunday night and Colgate continued a string of game-three home wins, ending the Saints' season with a 3-1 victory.

The Saints went into Sunday's game battling history and numbers in post-season games, although Sunday had been the best day of the year for the Saints this season. SLU was 1-4 in game three situations, including 0-4 in game-three road games, but 3-0 on Sunday this season with two of its most productive outings in wins at New Hampshire and Dartmouth. Add in Colgate's 4-1 record in game-threes, including 4-0 at Starr Rink, and the deck seemed stacked.

St. Lawrence, which finishes its season 13-20-4, had its chances, but missed opportunities on the power play and several other good shots which sailed wide were costly in the game.

"That was kind of the way our year has gone," said Saint coach Joe Marsh. "Special teams have been a thorn in our side much of the season, and they hurt us tonight. We got a great weekend from John Hallas in goal, but we needed to give him some offensive support."

Hallas had a big first period for the Saints, making a dozen saves including two on a two-on-one break and subsequent rebound with eight minutes to play. The first was fairly even until the final six mintues when Colgate turned up the pressure and finally got one past Hallas on a play which drew argument from the Saint staff and plenty of discussion among the officials.

The Saints were caught in a line change and two players tangled along the side boards. That allowed Ben Camper to cut toward net and take a shot. Video replay showed that the puck stayed on the goal line, but the red light went on. The Saint players stopped playing on the red light and Camper tapped it over the line. The goal was awarded after considerable discussion with Camper credited with his fifth of the season at 18:08.

It stayed a 1-0 game through two periods although the Saints dominated the second period and outshot Colgate 9-0 through the first 12 minutes. They couldn't come up with the equalizer however, coming up empty on 55 seconds of five-on-three power play and spending much of the period in the Colgate end.

A great individual effort by Tyler Burton gave Colgate a 2-0 lead just 29 seconds into the third period. Burton collected the puck on a Saint offensive zone draw and went coast-to-coast, snapping a shot past Hallas for his 21 st of the season and third of the series. The Raiders made it a 3-0 game on a power play at 5:17 as Wade Poplawski snuck one inside the post with Hallas being screened.

The Saints got one back when Charlie Giffin tipped Brock McBride's shot from the center slot past Colgate goalie Mark Dekanich for his eighth of the year at 7:47 on a power play, but they could get no closer despite some hard work in the Colgate end in the last ten minutes of the game.

Hallas finished with 23 saves for the Saints and Dekanich had 30 for the Raiders, who will advance to play Clarkson in the quarterfinals in Potsdam next weekend.