The goals came from unexpected sources as the third and fourth lines accounted for four of nine between the two teams and freshman wing Eric Neiley snapped a 3-3 tie at 11:15 of the third period and sent Dartmouth College to a 6-3 win over St. Lawrence University in game one of a ECAC Hockey best-of-three playoff series at Appleton Arena in Canton Friday night.

Dartmouth, 12-14-4, the ninth seed in the tournament, takes a 1-0 series lead over the eighth seeded Saints and can advance to the quarterfinals with a win on Saturday. The Saints, 14-18-3, need to win Saturday to force a series deciding game three on Sunday.

Dartmouth never trailed in the game which turned into a wild one with fast and furious scoring through the second and third periods

"We knew from seeing Dartmouth against Clarkson last weekend that they are a very dangerous team, and that team showed up tonight," said Saint associate head coach Mike Hurlbut. "We made some coverage mistakes in the third which helped them open it up, but we had our chances to establish ourselves with the power play and they did a good job of keeping us off the board.

"The season's on the line on Saturday and we'll just have to put this one behind us and come up with another big effort.

Senior Nick Walsh put the Big Green on the board with the only goal of the first period as Paul Lee worked the puck free along the boards and sent it in front where Walsh was stationed at the top of the goalie's crease. Walsh tucked the puck inside the far post at 19:08 for his fourth of the year. Dartmouth made it a 2-0 game 2:52 into the second when defenseman Connor Goggin skated down the center slot and scored his sixth of the year, but the Saints came back with two goals just 25 seconds apart to tie it.

Senior Mark Armstrong scored his third of the year on a breakaway, putting the puck just under the crossbar at 9:54 and after a Saint faceoff win, freshman Tommy Thompson powered to the net and put his third of the season over the shoulder of Dartmouth goalie Jody O'Neil to make it 2-2 at 10:19

Doug Jones scored his tenth of the season just seven seconds into Dartmouth's first power play of the game to start the third period, but the Saints answered that just 12 seconds later as Greg Carey scored his 14th of the season in a scramble in front of O'Neill.

Saint coverage errors left sophomore goaltender Matt Weninger to fend for himself at times in the third period and Dartmouth capitalized, starting with Neilly's eventual game winner, his second of the year at 11:15. Junior Jason Bourgea made it a 5-3 game when he scored off a faceoff win in the Saint end, walking in and sending a shot along the ice which went in off Weninger's skate at 12:29 and sophomore Matt Lindblad wrapped up the scoring when he cut to the net and scored with the teams skating four-on-four at the 15:21 mark of the third

O'Neill finished with 30 saves for Dartmouth while Weninger had 20 for the Saints who were scoreless in six power play chances for the game.