It’s back on the road for the Clarkson University Hockey team when they open the Eastern College Athletic Conference Hockey League (ECACHL) playoffs next weekend. The Golden Knights fell to ninth place in the standings after Saturday’s 3-0 loss to Cornell and will now face Union College in Schenectady, NY in first round of the league’s postseason tournament. The best-of-three series begins on Friday at Achilles Center.
David McKee tied a school record with his 13th career shutout behind an 18-save effort as second-ranked Cornell blanked Clarkson before 2,988 fans at Cheel Arena. The Knights, who are winless in their last five games (0-4-1) including a 3-3 last-second tie vs. Colgate on Friday, fell to 11-19-3 overall record and finished 7-13-2 in the conference.
The ECACHL regular season champions for the third time over the past four years, Cornell wasted little time in taking control of the final regular season contest by scoring on two of its first three shots to hold a 2-0 advantage six minutes after the opening faceoff. Mike Iggulden tallied on the first shot of the game, a soft shot along the ice that found its way through traffic in front at 1:38. At 5:44, the ECACHL’s leading goal scorer, Matt Moulson lifted in a back-hand shot from the bottom of the right circle for his league-high 20th goal of the season. With 66 seconds left in the opening stanza, Mike Knoepfli tallied to give the Big Red a 3-0 advantage.
Cornell out shot Clarkson 27-22. Junior Dustin Traylen (Kirkland, QUE) started in goal for the Knights and posted six first-period saves. Freshman David Leggio (Buffalo, NY) played the final two periods in the Clarkson goal and turned aside all 18 shots he faced. Cornell was 0-6 on the power play, while the Knights were scoreless in their five chances.
