The Union College line of freshman Olivier Bouchard, Scott Seney and Jonathan Poirier accounted for three goals and the Dutchmen held off a late St. Lawrence University rally to record a 4-3 win in the Eastern College Athletic Conference Division I opener for both teams at Appleton Arena.

The Dutchmen, 6-1-1 overall and 1-0-0 in the ECAC, defeated the Saints for the fourth straight time all by a single goal. St. Lawrence, now 1-6-3 overall and 0-1-0 in the ECAC, is winless in its last nine.

Poirier, denied on two breakaways earlier in the period, scored the only goal of an even first period when he skated down the slot and snapped a wrist shot which glanced off the pads of Saint goalie Kevin Ackley and into the net at the 17:04 mark.

The Dutchmen made it a 2-0 game when Bouchard, a freshman, scored his second of the season on Unions first shot on goal in the second period 11:09 in. The Saints got that one back when John Zeiler took a pass from Ryan Glenn, skated out in front and snapped a shot into the upper corner for his third of the season at 17:07.

Union seemed to take command of the game when Jason Visser scored his second of the season on a power play redirection 1:22 into the third period and Seney scored his eighth of the year from Poirier and Bouchard with 3:04 gone to make it a 4-2 game.

The Saints, who had not scored more than two goals in a game in their last six starts, came charging back as sophomore T.J. Trevelyan scored his seventh of the year on a power play at 10:15 and senior Rich Peverley scored his fourth just 1:03 later to cut it to 4-3, but Union was able to kill off two late Saint power plays and Kris Mayotte came up with some big saves in the stretch to protect the lead.

Mayotte finished with 29 saves for the Dutchmen while junior Kevin Ackley had 20 for the Saints.