Saints Hockey 2025Postseason Previews

By Matthew Taylor Last updated Feb 27, 2025

The Saints women’s hockey team is ranked seventh in the nation heading into ECAC Tournament play. PHOTO CREDIT: C A HILL PHOTO, SAINTS ATHLETICS

The St. Lawrence University Saints Women’s Ice Hockey team will host an Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament quarterfinal matchup against the Yale Bulldogs this weekend at Appleton Arena. The Saints put together yet another impressive regular season campaign in 2024-25, going 19-10-5 overall and 13-6-3 in the ECAC. They finished the regular season ranked 7th nationally and have the third seed in the upcoming ECAC tournament.

The Saints have played a gauntlet of a schedule, playing sixteen games against ranked opponents, with twelve being against top ten teams. They’ve played well in these matchups, especially as of late, notching key wins over 9th-ranked Quinnipiac and 12th-ranked Princeton in February. This gives them momentum heading into their conference tournament, where the winner gets a coveted automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The Saints’ strong conference record earned them a first-round bye. In the quarterfinals, they will play host to Yale University. Yale is the sixth seed in the conference, and they beat 11th-seeded Dartmouth in the opening round to advance to play the Saints. In the tournament format, the quarterfinals are a best-of-three series, while the opening round, semifinal round, and championship games are all single games.

SLU has been successful against the Bulldogs in the regular season, though both matchups were close. They beat Yale 2-1 in November in New Haven, Connecticut, and won a low-scoring 1-0 battle against them at home in January. Thus, this should be a very exciting series. Game one will be Friday, Feb. 28, at 2 p.m., game two will be Saturday, March 1, at 2 p.m., and if necessary, game three will be at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 2. Even if they lose in the conference tournament, the Saints have done enough in the regular season that they should get an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The St. Lawrence Men’s Ice Hockey team is in a different boat, and they will likely need to run the table in the ECAC Tournament to make the NCAA Tournament. The Saints have two more regular season games remaining. As of now, they have a 9-21-2 overall record and a 5-13-2 conference record. They are currently the 11th-ranked team in the ECAC, tied with Yale with 18 points each. Based on the standings, they will likely play Dartmouth or Cornell on the road in the first round.

While their regular season was underwhelming, the Saints have a penchant for making strong runs in the conference tournament. Just last year, they had a losing record at the seventh seed in the ECAC. However, they made a run all the way to the championship game, beating 10th-seeded Yale in the first round, then upsetting Colgate in the quarterfinals and beating Quinnipiac, who was ranked sixth nationally, in the semifinals. This win was especially significant, as Quinnipiac had just beaten them 8-1 in the last game of the regular season, but the Saints flipped the script and won 3-0 in the tournament semifinals.

While their run ended in the championship game with a 3-1 loss to Cornell, it was still an impressive run. St. Lawrence will look to replicate this season. The Saints will play Princeton this Friday at 7 p.m. and Quinnipiac on Saturday at 7 p.m. After that, they will find out where they will travel for their first-round tournament matchup.