The script for Friday night's St. Lawrence University men's hockey win at Princeton was a familiar one…goaltender Kyle Hayton holding the opponent at bay early and the Saints putting it away as the game headed toward a conclusion.

Hayton made 32 of his 41 saves in the first two periods, the Saints jumped out to a 3-0 lead and then went on to a 5-1 win at Princeton in the first of a big ECAC Hockey road series. The 14th-ranked Saints improve to 8-3-1 overall and 3-1-0 in league play head into a Saturday night showdown at third ranked Quinnipiac which remained unbeaten but was tied by Clarkson on Friday. The Saints ran their unbeaten streak against the Tigers to 11 games (9-0-2) with Friday's victory.

Princeton generated a lot of shots, but could only get one past Hayton, who is now 2-0-1 against the Tigers with a 0.64 goals against average and a .977 save percentage. He stopped all 17 shots sent his way in the first period as the Saints came away from the first 20 minutes with a 1-0 lead despite a 17-9 shot count in Princeton's favor. And while Princeton had a 33-22 shot advantage through the first 40 minutes, the Saints had a 3-1 lead.

Sophomore Ryan Lough scored the lone goal of the first period, his second of the season, as he was set up by Mike Laidley and Ben Masella at the 9:57 mark. Defenseman Masella picked up his second assist of the night and third in the last two games as senior captain Brian Ward scored his fourth of the year with Mike Marnell also assisting 1:57 into the second period. Laidley made it 3-0 from Woody Hudson and Eric Sweetman at 9:53 of the second and while Max Becker foiled Hayton's shutout bid at 12:31 of the second, the Saints were on their way.

Alex Hagen scored his fourth of the year and third in his last five starts from Christian Horn and Mike Graham at 9:48 of the third and Joe Sullivan scored his fourth of the year, all coming in the last three games, to conclude the scoring from Marnell and Ward at 12:07 of the third.

The Saints dominated the third period, outshooting Princeton 18-9 with Hagen's goal chasing starting goalie Colton Phinney and Sullivan's greeting backup Ben Halford 2:09 later.

Special teams were not a factor in Friday's game as just three penalties were called in the game which took under two hours to play. The Saints were scoreless on their lone power play and Princeton did not score on two man-up chances.

Phinney finished with 29 saves on 33 shots for the Tigers while Halford stopped six of seven.