After a one-year absence the Clarkson University Hockey team returns to the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championship Tournament. The Golden Knights advance after defeating Cornell two games to one in the conference’s quarterfinal series in Ithaca, NY. Clarkson shut down the Big Red in Sunday’s third and deciding game, posting a 5-1 victory at Lynah Rink. Cornell opened the series on Friday with a convincing 5-1 win, but the Green and Gold surged back on Saturday to claim a 5-4 win.
Clarkson, which stands at the .500 mark for the first time since early January with a 17-17-5 overall record, will play ECAC regular season champion Colgate in the semifinal round on Friday at the Pepsi Arena. Game time is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Dartmouth and Harvard will meet in the other ECAC semifinal contest on Friday.
Junior Mac Faulkner (King City, ONT), the Knights’ leading scorer, tallied two goals on Sunday to lead Clarkson to its sixth win over the past eight games.
Clarkson’s leading goal scorer, junior Chris Blight (Cambridge, ONT) started the scoring at 5:20 of the first when he one-time a pass from classmate Jay Latulippe (Saratoga Springs, NY) from the top of the left circle while on the power play for his team-high 18th goal of the season. With 57 seconds left in the middle frame, Faulkner picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and raced in for a breakaway goal, stuffing in his own rebound to give the Knights a 2-0 lead. Clarkson made it 3-0 at 6:44 of the third as freshman Jamie McKinven (Kingston, ONT) connected on a cross-crease pass from senior co-captain Tristan Lush (North Andover, MA) for his second goal of the year.
Cornell got on the scoreboard with a power-play tally at 9:33, but just 36 seconds later senior Trevor Edwards (Carleton Place, ONT) put the Green and Gold back on top by three goals when he poked in a loose puck in the crease through the pads of the Big Red’s goaltender for a 4-1 lead. Faulkner closed out the win with his 17th goal, an empty-net score at 17:41.
Sophomore Dustin Traylen (Kirkland, QUE) made 26 saves as Cornell outshot the Knights 27-25. The Knights were 1-of-3 on the power play, while the Big red went 1-of-7 with the man advantage
