The dress rehearsal for St. Lawrence University's 2014-15 men's hockey team went pretty well at Appleton Arena on Saturday night as the Saints skated to a 4-0 win over Carleton University in an exhibition game which was both entertaining and a little feisty.

The Saints improved to 5-1-1 in exhibition openers against Canadian squads and beat Carleton for the third straight year, scoring twice in both the first and second periods and then holding off the Ravens, who had their best period in the third. Three Saint goalies combined for the shutout in a planned rotation of junior Kyle MacDonald, sophomore Tyler Parks and freshman Kyle Hayton with the trio combining for 19 saves.

The two teams did combine for 21 penalties for 75 minutes including three fighting penalties and the accompanying game disqualifications. Saint sophomore defenseman Ben Masella was the only Saint to draw a DQ after a second period tussle with Carleton's Nick Duhn. The Saints were perfect on the penalty kill, stopping all eight Carleton power plays and were one for eight on their man advantages. While the statistics from the game do not count, the DQ will keep Masella out of the lineup for the Saints next game.

Both clubs dressed extra skaters for the exhibition and several Saint rookies made impressive debuts in the game. The all-rookie line of Joe Sullivan, Ryan Lough and Mike Marnell teamed up for the second goal of the game and could have had a couple more and freshman defenseman Nolan Gluchowski also scored.

Tommy Thompson, who returns to the Saints after taking last year off, opened the scoring 4:23 into the game as he took a pass from sophomore defenseman Eric Sweetman and blasted the puck past Carleton starter Francis Dupuis. It went to 2-0 exactly midway through the first period as Sullivan redirected Marnell's pass into the net with Lough also assisting at the 10 minute mark.

Special teams were the story of the second period as the Saints picked up an early even strength goal then tacked on a power play goal to make it a 4-0 game. Gluchowski made it a 3-0 game 4:17 into the period as he took a drop pass from Gunnar Hughes just inside the Saint blue line and one-timed the puck past Dupuis with Patrick Doherty also assisting and Doherty scored in close on a nifty pass from Alex Hagen on the power play with Sweetman picking up his second assist of the night at 6:13 to complete the scoring.

Carleton played with a little more zip in the third period and had a trio of power play chances, but the Saints killed off all three and Hayton made eight saves in the busiest period for a Saint goaltender.

SLU will officially open their NCAA season at RIT on Friday night, opening that team's new arena, and will complete a weekend series at Niagara on Saturday.