St. Lawrence University's top line of seniors Gunnar Hughes and Patrick Doherty plus junior Tommy Thompson combined for three goals and five assists and the Saints clinched a first-round playoff bye with an impressive 5-1 over 14th-ranked Harvard in a ECAC Hockey game at Appleton Arena Friday night.

The Saints, ranked 20th nationally, improved to 17-11-3 overall and 13-5-1 in league play and are guaranteed a top-four finish in league play with three games remaining in the regular season. Harvard falls to 13-9-3 overall and 9-7-3 in league play and is 0-5-1 in its last six against the Saints. The Saints improved to 7-3-0 in league play at home and are 9-2-1 in the ECAC since the beginning of January. While Colgate could tie the Saints in points if it wins out and the Saints do not win another game, it would have to knock Yale out of the top four to do so, clinching the top four spots for the Saints.

SLU, picked to finish 11th in the league in pre-season polls, put on a dominating first period performance, but some big saves by Harvard starting goalie Steve Michalek and a couple of missed nets enabled the Crimson to escape the first 20 minutes in a 1-1 tie. The Saints then strung three goals in a period of 4:20 in the second period to blow the game open.

"That was the best game we have played all season," said Saint coach Greg Carvel. "We played with great energy and good position and competed hard for the full 60 minutes. I never felt the momentum got away from us, even though we were a little frustrated coming out of the first tied 1-1 after such a great period. Michalek made some great toe saves to keep it close, and then we started finishing off the great plays in the second."

Saint captain Hughes scored his 10th of the season to open the scoring 9:06 into the first period as he took a pass from Thompson at the top of the goal crease and tucked the puck past Michalek. Harvard cashed in on the first power play opportunity of the game as Tyler Moy scored his ninth of the season on a hard shot from the point with just 14 seconds left in the first period for the 1-1 tie after one.

Saint freshman goalie Kyle Hayton, who has not given up more than two goals in a game in his last 12 starts, was given more than enough to work with when the Saints exploded midway through the third.

Hughes scored his second of the night on a slapshot which blasted between Michalek's glove and the post at 10:14 and then Thompson broke in and had an initial shot stopped by Michalek, but buried his own rebound for his eighth of the year at 13:32. Freshman Joe Sullivan capped off a pretty passing play with his fifth of the season from Mike Marnell and Brian Ward at 14:34.

Marnell scored his seventh of the year with a shot over the glove an under the crossbar at 6:59 of the third to complete the scoring. Peter Traber took over for Michalek in net and had four saves in the final 13:01 as the two Harvard goalies combined for 26 saves.

Hayton finished with 25 saves for the Saints who had a 36-21 edge in shots on goal for the game.

"It is great to see the team play this well at this point in the season," Carvel added.