A battered and bruised University of Vermont hockey team put together a stellar effort from start to finish on Friday night, handing 13th-ranked St. Lawrence University a 4-0 shutout in the Burlington part of a home-and-home weekend series.

The Catamounts, who came into the game 4-10-2 with six of the ten losses against top four teams, were down two defensemen, a forward and their starting goaltender, but blocked eight shots in the first ten minutes to set the stage for a frustrating night for the Saints, who fall to 9-5-2 overall. It was the six straight win for the Cats in the series and the second straight shutout.

Freshman goaltender Packy Munson made 23 saves for his first collegiate shutout in his first collegiate start, but the Saints didn't get a number of quality chances against him as Munson's defense came up big. Saint rookie Arthur Brey made his second career start and deserved a better fate as two Vermont goals came off deflections off SLU defenders and the third was a three-on-one tap in. Brey finished with 26 saves for the Saints.

While the first period was territorially even, it took the Saints 10 minutes to get a shot through to the goaltender as Vermont blocked eight shots in the first half of the period. The shots and scoring chances evened out as the period went along, but the Saints couldn't get one past Munson and Vermont took advantage of a bounce to take the lead. Junior wing Malcolm McKinney threw a puck toward the net from along the goal line and it bounced off the back of a Saint defender's skate and into the upper corner at 16:26.

Another deflection off a defender gave Vermont a 2-0 lead in the second period as Kevin Irwin came out of the penalty box after coincidental minors and headed into the Saint zone on a two-on-one. Irwin's shot hit a defenseman and snuck between Brey and the post at 13:39.

UVM made it a 3-0 game just 1:13 into the third on the three-on-one as Jarrid Privitera finished it off with the tap in at the left post for his seventh of the year after passes from Irwin and Brian Bowen set him up. Bowen completed the scoring at 6:45 as his shot through traffic from the top of the right faceoff circle found the back of the net for his second of the year.

The two teams will play a rematch in Canton on Saturday night.