Freshman wing Kayla Tutino scored one goal and assisted on another and sophomore goaltender Kerrin Sperry made 36 saves as fourth-ranked Boston University held off St. Lawrence University 3-2 in a fast-paced NCAA Division I women's ice hockey game at Appleton Arena in Canton Saturday afternoon.

The Terriers, 5-1-1 overall, stretched their unbeaten streak to four games and took three points out of their North Country weekend after a 2-2 tie at Clarkson on Friday and Saturday's win. The Saints, who tied New Hampshire 2-2 on Saturday, sustained their first loss of the season and are now 3-1-2 overall.

BU jumped out to a 3-0 lead, scoring two highlight reel goals, but the Saints battled back and had several great scoring chances either foiled by Sperry or sent just wide or high. St. Lawrence outshot BU 38-24 including 29-13 over the final two periods.

"That was an excellent hockey game," said Saint coach Chris Wells. "BU has a lot of talent, but I think we proved to ourselves that we can be competitive with one of the top teams in the country."

The Terriers opened the scoring 4:21 into the game when Tutino took a pass from Christina Wiley, broke into the Saint zone and snapped a hard shot which beat Saint goalie Caitlyn Lahonen between the near post and her pad. It was the sixth of the season for Tutino.

BU went ahead 2-0 just 1:33 into the second period when Shannon Mahoney worked her way into the short slot and put away Tutino's centering pass from point blank range, and the Terrier made it a 3-0 game on a pretty on-the-fly redirection of a Kaleigh Fratkin pass by senior captain Jenn Wakefield, who scored her eighth of the season.

The Saints, who outshot BU 14-7 in the second period, scrambled back into contention with just 4.9 seconds to play in the period as junior center Kelly Sabatine circled out in front of the BU cage and fired a wrist shot which eluded Sperry on the stick side with Rylee Smith and Jessica Hon assisting.

The Saints made it a one-goal game at 9:56 of the third period when junior Michelle Ng put a rebound of a shot by Smith back past Sperry with Josee Belanger also assisting, but despite a late power play chance in the third period and then pulling Lahonen for an extra attacker in the final 30 seconds, the Saints could not come up with the equalizer.

"I was really happy with the hustle and work ethic," said Wells. "We took the game to them in the second and third period, and while we didn't come away with enough goals to win it, it wasn't for lack of chances. This is one of those games we can build on regardless of the outcome."

Lahonen finished with 21 saves for the Saints in the end-to-end contest which featured just four total penalties between the two teams.

The Saints will open ECAC play with a tough home set next Friday and Saturday, hosting Harvard and Dartmouth.