SLU Hockey Heads intoConference Play Looking to Boost Offense and Win Games

By William Chalfant Last updated Oct 31, 2024

St. Lawrence Men’s Hockey starts their exciting ECAC schedule soon. PHOTO CREDIT: C A Hill, Saints Athletics

St. Lawrence men’s hockey is coming off a 14-19-6 season. It was a year full of great heights and deep depths. The Saints had some tough scoreless losses against Yale and Western Michigan along with a 4-1 loss to Clarkson in the Route 11 rivalry. Their season turned around toward the end of the season, as they avenged a 8-1 loss to defending national champion Quinnipiac by beating them both late in the regular season and in the ECAC semifinals. The Saints lost in the championship game of that conference tournament to Cornell.

The roster: SLU bid farewell to 12 seniors, including graduate student goalie Ben Kraws who is now part of the Dallas Stars organization. Replacing them are eight first years.

“Playing with (the new guys) in different parts of practice has been really fun because they have a lot of skill and good hockey IQ,” said junior forward Tyler Cristall. In regards to the goalie position, “the net is wide open,” according to assistant coach Mike Aikens. The Saints retain their leading point scorers from last year, Felikss Gavars and Drake Burgin who had 25 and 20 points respectively. Cristall mentioned sophomore defenseman Jan Olgenski as a player who could make a big jump this year. “I’m really excited to watch him play this season,” said Cristall.

Game plan: SLU struggled to score goals last year, ranking ninth in ECAC Hockey in scoring with 2.3 goals per game. They leaned heavily on defense and goaltending to win games, and with the departure of Kraws and all ECAC second-teamer Luc Salem, that defense is going to need the offense to pick up the slack.

“We feel that we will be more offensive this year,” said Aikens.

In non-conference play thus far, the Saints have gotten off to a 4-4 start to the season, with their offense showing some flashes of greatness. The highlights include a 2-0 start, scoring 3 goals against RIT and 5 against Canisus in these two respective wins.

Also, after losing 1-0 against Ferris State on October 18, SLU came back the next day to score 8 goals against the same opponent in an 8-0 win, showing the resiliency and ability to improve of this offense

SLU’s first opportunity to showcase their offense against conference teams will be on November 15 when they meet Union College in Schenectady.

Goals: Brent Brekke enters his sixth season as Charles W. Appleton II Head Men’s Hockey Coach. With their conference championship appearance last season, the Saints have come a long way since their 4-27-5 season in Brekke’s first season. The ECAC coaches poll has them at seventh entering the season. Cristall was not moved bythis.

“Whatever the people rank us it doesn’t matter to us. We feel like we can beat anyone in our conference,” he said.

Goals for the season were pretty cut and dry for Tyler Cristall ’26. “Win as many games as possible,” he said, “Let’s get some chants going. The boys talk about it, everyone shows, [and] we love the support, but sometimes we’re down a goal or two. A couple chants will get the boys humming again.” The Skating Saints are ready and they hope the Appleton Army is too. They play next at home on Friday, November 8 against Simon Fraser, so if you are free that evening come support the Saints!