The St. Lawrence University men's hockey team lost the battle of special teams on Friday night, as No. 16 Harvard score three power-play goals to beat the Saints 3-1 at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

All four goals in the game came with the man advantage, as Jake Stevens scored his second of the season in the latter half of the third period to spoil the Crimson's shutout bid.

After a slow start in the first period that saw the Crimson take a 2-0 lead, the Saints had the better of the play 5-on-5 in the final 40 minutes and finished with a slight 29-28 edge in shots on goal. It is the first time St. Lawrence has outshot an opponent since November at Brown.

Senior netminder Daniel Mannella made his third straight start on Friday night and finished with 25 saves.

Jack Drury put the Crimson on the board at 10:30 of the first period with the first of two power-play goals in the frame, as he tipped a shot from the point at the near post for a 1-0 lead. Colton Kerfoot pushed the lead to 2-0 when he finished a cross-crease feed from John Farinacci on the back door at 17:47.

One of the Saints best scoring chances in the second came from rookie Aleksi Peltonen, who was stopped by Harvard's Mitchell Gibson on a breakaway with 11:05 to play in the middle frame.

Minutes later, Harvard cashed in on its third power play of the game, as Reilly Walsh beat Mannella high on the blocker side with a blast from the left circle to make it 3-0 in favor of the Crimson at 13:01.

Mannella made sure Walsh didn't best him again, though, robbing the Harvard defensemen with a dazzling glove save with 4.2 seconds to play in the middle frame.

In the third, the team's traded power plays through the first 10 minutes before the Saints found themselves with 1:26 of a 5-on-3 in with just over seven minutes to play in regulation.

It took Stevens just 19 seconds to find the back of the net after Harvard was whistled for the second penalty, as he beat Gibson post with a blast through traffic from the high slot to put the Saints on the board. Bo Hanson and Philip Alftberg assisting on the play.

With time winding down in the third and the Saints killing a 4-on-3 power play for Harvard, Tim Makowski saved a goal with 2:45 play as the puck squeaked through Mannella's pads, but the first-year defenseman was there to clear it off the goal line and keep the deficit at two goals.

The Saints kept pressure on in the last two minutes and pulled Mannella with 1:15 to play for the extra attacker, but couldn't pull even.

Gibson finished with 28 stops of the Crimson in the win.

With the loss, St. Lawrence is now 3-18-3 overall on the season, with a 1-11-0 mark in conference play. Harvard improves to 9-5-2 and 7-3-1 in ECAC Hockey.

The Saints will travel to Dartmouth for a 7 p.m. matchup on Saturday night against the Big Green in conference action.