St. Lawrence University's hockey team rode what has become a typically solid goaltending performance from Kyle Hayton, a strong defensive performance across the board and two late goals from senior captain Gunnar Hughes to a 4-0 win over arch-rival Clarkson in Potsdam Saturday night.

The Saint win was the first for Saint coach Greg Carvel in his coaching career against the Knights and the first for a Saint team in Potsdam since December of 2009. It was also the first shutout for a Saint goalie against Clarkson since January of 1993 as Hayton made 30 saves for his second shutout of the year.

SLU improves to 4-3-1 on the season heading into the start of league play at Brown and Yale next weekend and riding some momentum from a solid weekend.

"Kyle made some real big saves for us early," said Carvel. "We were fortunate to keep our head above water in the first period, but Chris Martin's goal gave us some life and we were able to reset between periods. I though we raised our game to start the second period and kept raising it the rest of the way."

The Saints weathered a storm in their own end defensively in the second half of the first period with the help of Hayton and then struck with the game's first goal late in the period. Martin scored the goal in a scramble in front of Clarkson goalie Steve Perry. The puck bounced in a group of players and came out to Martin who rifled one under the crossbar for his second of the season and fourth career goal against the Knights. Hughes and Tommy Thompson assisted on the goal at 18:47.

"In addition to scoring, Chris helped settle the game for us," said Carvel. "He did an excellent job in the defensive end and helped us get our defense established."

Freshman Mike Marnell made it a 2-0 game on the first Saint power play opportunity of the weekend when he redirected a perfect pass from Brian Ward under the crossbar with Christian Horn also assisting at 13:16. It was Marnell's third goal of the year.

"Our young guys are really contributing on special teams. There weren't many chances this weekend, but that power play goal was big and our penalty kill was real strong. Good goaltending gives you the confidence for the penalty kill and a little extra step to be aggressive."

While Clarkson held a 23-10 edge in shots on goal through two periods, the Saints had better zone time than that might indicate and had some other good scoring chances go just wide. Each team attempted 15 shots in the second period and Hayton stopped all 11 that were on net by the Knights.

Hayton protected his shutout in the third with a pair of big saves five minutes into the period and then Hughes gave him a big cushion when he broke in on a two-on-one, looked Perry off and scored his first of the season with Pat Doherty assisting at 17:00. The Saint captain became the 18th different player to score a goal this season and then added his second of the night, breaking up a Clarkson power play deep in the Saint end, racing up the side boards and putting the puck into the empty net for a shorthander at 18:49.