ITHACA — St. Lawrence University’s men’s hockey team’s struggles at Cornell continued Saturday night.

The 12th-ranked Big Red scored two goals in the final six minutes to defeat the Saints, 3-1 in an ECAC Hockey game at Lynah Rink.

St. Lawrence hasn’t won a game at Cornell in the past six seasons with its last victory in Ithaca a 2-1 decision in February 2006.

In this meeting, the Saints (7-5-2 overall, 1-3-2 league) stayed with the Big Red for nearly 55 minutes before Cornell (6-3-2, 3-3-2) broke open a close game.

“In the first period, Cornell had the better of the play,” St. Lawrence coach Greg Carvel. “But I thought after that we regrouped, played much better and played a pretty even game the last two periods. We didn’t necessarily deserve to win, but even with five minutes left in the game we were getting our scoring chances. It was just some mistakes late in the game which hurt us.”

With the game tied at one, John Esposito took a long pass from Erik Axell and scored on a breakaway at 14:15 of the third period for the eventual game-winning goal.

The Saints were then caught trying to set up for the potential tying goal in the final minute and a turnover at center ice led to Joel Lowry’s goal for Cornell at 19:04.

“They’re a big, strong hockey team,” Carvel said. “And our defensemen had a hard time handling their forwards down low and they did a real good job in our zone, especially in the first period. But I like the way the guys competed.”

The Saints grabbed the early lead as Greg Carey scored his 11th of the season on a power play just 2:16 into the game.

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