Jacob Nielsen's first collegiate goal on a breakaway put the St. Lawrence men's hockey team in front early, but three third period goals for Dartmouth gave the Big Green a 3-1 win on Saturday night in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Collin Rutherford scored two of Dartmouth's three goals, including the game winner at the 19:01 mark of the final frame in a scrum in front of Saints' netminder Arthur Brey. The Big Green also added an empty net goal with 7.2 to play.

With the loss, the Saints fall to 7-23-2 overall and 3-15-1 in conference play, while Dartmouth improves to 12-13-2 and 10-9-1 against ECAC Hockey opponents.

Nielsen gave the Saints the lead 5:21 into the first period on a breakaway off a feed from classmate Bo Hanson in the neutral zone.

Hanson poke-checked an attempted pass by the Big Green on a rush to Nielsen, who picked it up at the Dartmouth blue line and skated into the zone beating Buffalo with a high shot blocker side for the 1-0 lead.

Dartmouth hit a post minutes later on a 2-on-1, but wasn't able to beat Brey through 20 minutes as the Saints entered the first intermission up a goal.

In a scoreless second period, Philip Alftberg rang the crossbar on the power play with a rip from the point after sustained pressure for the Saints in the Dartmouth zone.

Dartmouth spoiled Brey's shutout bid with Rutherford's first of the night at the 8:48 mark of the third period, as the Big Green capitalized on a failed clear by the Saints and Rutherford beat Brey on a second chance opportunity at the near post. The Saints' netminder made the initial stop on Rutherford's bid from the slot, but couldn't corral the rebound.

The Saints had a number of Grade A scoring chances in the third on odd-man rushes into Dartmouth territory, but either sent shots just wide or were stuffed by Big Green goaltender Devin Buffalo.

With 58.3 seconds remaining, Rutherford won a battle for loose puck just in front of the blue paint after a pair of saves by Brey and buried the game-winning goal for the Big Green.

St. Lawrence called a timeout and pulled Brey after the goal for the extra attacker, but was unable to net he equalizer. Quin Foreman's empty-net tally in the final seconds pushed the game the eventual 3-1 margin in favor of the home team.

Brey finished with 28 saves for the Saints in the loss, including 11 in both the first and third periods. Buffalo made six stops in each frame for a total of 18 in the win.

Both teams finished 0-for-2 with the man advantage on Saturday night.