A disastrous second period put the Clarkson University Hockey team in a big hole and a late third period rally fell short as the Golden Knights lost at Rensselaer 4-3 on Saturday night before 4,267 fans at Houston Field House in Troy, NY.
Clarkson, which lost 5-0 at Union on Friday, falls to 12-8-2 overall and to 5-4-1 in the ECAC Hockey League.
The match up between the bitter rivals started out well for Clarkson as the Knights wasted little time in getting back on the scoreboard after Friday’s shutout at Union, scoring 3:15 into the first. The Knights’ leading scorer, sophomore Nick Dodge (Oakville, ONT) took a pass out of the corner by classmate, David Cayer (Longueuil, QUE) and connected on a shot from the top of the crease for his 11th goal of the season. Junior Mike Sullivan (Stouffville, ONT) also assisted on the goal that snapped a stretch of 150:53 of scoreless hockey for the Green and Gold in league play.
Rensselaer took control in the second period with four unanswered goals, the most given up by the Knights in a 20-minute span this season. Keith McWilliams tied it at 5:10 with a shot from the point that found its way through traffic. At 11:43, the Engineers took the lead as Dan Peace broke in alone nine seconds after RPI had killed off a Clarkson power play to put the home team on top 2-1. The Engineers added a pair of late power-play goals to take a three-goal lead after 40 minutes. Kurt Colling tallied at 14:09 and with 43 seconds remaining in the stanza Reed Kipp converted on a 4x3 advantage.
Clarkson rallied in the third with a pair of goals 1:48 apart to make it a one-goal game. Cayer scored on a shot along the left boards for his eighth goal of the season with Dodge and freshman defenseman Tyrell Mason (Dawson Creek, BC) assisting at 12:24. At 14:12, Sullivan tallied his 10th of the year finishing off passes from Dodge and Cayer in front to make it 4-3.
The Knights pulled junior goaltender Kyle McNulty (Wakefield, RI) for the extra attacker with 71 seconds remaining in a bid to tie the game, but Rensselaer held off the Clarkson charge to run their unbeaten streak over their rival from the North Country to six straight games (0-5-1).
RPI out shot the Knights 35-32. Clarkson was 0-of-5 on the power play, while the Engineers went 2-of-11 with the man advantage.
