CAMBRIDGE, Mass- Having just beaten Clarkson 5-1, less then 24 hours ago, the Harvard Crimson (4-2, 4-2 ECAC Hockey) men’s hockey took the ice again against a determined St. Lawrence Saints (4-4-1, 1-2-1 ECAC Hockey) team. St. Lawrence, are just coming off a tough game against Dartmouth the night before, losing 4-3 in overtime.

Harvard defeated the Saints, 1-0 and picked up four points for a weekend sweep against two very solid ECAC opponents.

“Those are a big four points for us,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato. “I’m excited about it, the guys battled hard and it was a good weekend.”

The game was dominated by great goaltending and solid penalty kills. Both Harvard and St. Lawrence players peppers each others goaltenders, with each making solid saves keeping their teams in the game when the defense broke down.

But the two standouts for Harvard were freshman goalie; Matt Hoyle who secured his first collegiate shutout and sophomore forward Matt McCollem, scoring the game-winning goal.

“It’s always tough to get the first shootout, the team helped me out a lot and I just tried focusing on each shot,” said Hoyle on picking up first collegiate shutout. Hoyle stopped all 29 shots from St. Lawrence.

Harvard’s lone goal came on power play, by forward McCollem. Crimson forwards Steve Rolecek and Alex Killorn fired the puck at the net and McCollem waiting at the right post, fired in the rebound past St. Lawrence’s junior goalie Alex Petizian.

“On the power play, we stressed getting the puck to the net,” said McCollem. “We were getting a lot of shots on, and I figured I’d just stand there. Alex Killorn got a shot on, and it bounced out to me.”

Petizian did his best to keep his team in the game, stopping 35 of Harvard’s 36 shots.

Once again the game was filled with penalties with Harvard accumulating seven and St. Lawrence gathering eight. Harvard’s McCollem was the only one taking advantage of the extra man.

One penalty was a little curious though when St. Lawrence’s forward Augie Dimarzo was charged with a “protocol violation” penalty. This is a point of emphasis for the referees this year to keep the game moving.

At the end of a very high spirited first period, Dimarzo went to give his goaltender a tap on the pads. The problem with this was that Dimarzo was sitting on the bench when the period ended and therefore not allowed to be on the ice once the period ended. When St. Lawrence came out for the second period, head coach Joe Marsh didn’t look pleased to say the least.

The Saints return to action next Friday against defending ECAC tournament champion, Princeton. Harvard will back in action on Tuesday night at Brown, looking for a third straight victory.