The Saint scoring drought, and the accompanying frustration, continued Saturday night as while St. Lawrence pumped 35 shots on goal, it couldn't get one to go in and lost for the fourth straight time, falling 2-0 to the University of Vermont in the home half of a home-and-home weekend series.

Freshman Kevin Irwin broke a scoreless tie with 5:53 to go in the second period and sophomore goaltender Mike Santaguida made 35 saves for his second shutout of the season as tenth-ranked Vermont completed the sweep and handed the Saints their first shutout loss of the year.

The Catamounts, who won 2-1 in Burlington on Friday, improve to 13-3-1 on the season and won their sixth straight, while the Saints continue to battle a scoring slump and dropped their fourth straight despite allowing just two goals in three of the four losses. SLU is now 8-8-1 on the year heading into a break for exams and the holidays.

"We are snakebitten," said Saint coach Greg Carvel. "We are really having a hard time scoring. We have played four games against three very good defensive teams, and we have created our fair share of chances, but right now the puck just isn't going in."

Irwin took advantage of a Saint turnover at the SLU blue line and walked in on goalie Kyle Hayton, putting the puck into the upper corner for his fourth of the season and the eventual game winner at 14:07 of the second.

Sophomore Brady Shaw then gave Santaguida an insurance goal when he tipped a hard shot from the point by defenseman Mike Paliotta for his sixth of the year with just three seconds to go in a Vermont power play 1:02 into the final period.

Santaguida made 26 of his 35 saves in the game in the second and third periods while Hayton finished with 27 stops for the Saints who were shut out for the first time this year, but have scored just four goals in the last four games.

"I am proud of the effort and the way we have played the game in the first half. We have commanded some respect and we are better than people expected, but we need to get to another level in the second half o fthe season," Carvel added. "We are playing hard and we are playing the right way, but we need to minimize our mistakes and find a way to get to some rebounds and score some goals."