Junior Chris D’Alvise (Mississauga, ONT) scored twice on the power play and assisted on two goals to lead Clarkson University to a 4-2 victory over Brown in ECAC Hockey action before 2,518 fans at Cheel Arena Saturday night. Ranked 8th in the country, the Golden Knights, who shut out Yale 1-0 on Friday, extended their home unbeaten streak to 20 straight games (16-0-4) with the weekend sweep.
Clarkson, 7-0 at Cheel this season, improved its record to 9-3 overall and stands alone in first place in ECAC Hockey with a 6-1 league mark. The Knights host St. Cloud State of the WCHA in a non-league series this coming weekend.
Clarkson came out strong to start the game out shooting Brown 7-0 before the Bears registered their first shot on goal with 9:30 left in the opening stanza. The Knights, who held a 15-9 margin in shots through the first 20 minutes, had one of their best opportunities to take the early lead when D’Alvise split a pair of Brown defenseman and rang a shot of the crossbar in a shorthanded situation during the final minute of the period.
The Knights took control in the second stanza, connecting for three goals. Freshman Scott Freeman (Whitby, ONT) struck first, putting in a rebound off a shot from the point by rookie defenseman Bryan Rufenach (Cameron, ONT) for his second goal of the season. D’Alvise also assisted
Clarkson padded the lead with a pair of goals 33 seconds apart late in the middle frame. Eight seconds into a power play, D’Alvise finished off a passing combination from senior captain Nick Dodge (Oakville, ONT) and sophomore Matt Beca (Mississauga, ONT) at 17:07. Freshman Lauri Tuohimaa (Helsinki, Finland) made it 3-0 when he picked up a rebound off D’Alvise’s shot in the slot and knocked in his third goal of the season at 17:40. Freeman also assisted.
Brown got on the scoreboard 16 seconds into the third when Chris Poli took a pass from Sean Hurley and fired in a wrist shot from the left circle while on the power play for his first goal of the season.
Clarkson regain the three-goal advantage at 3:38 with another quick strike on the power play. Just 33 seconds into its seventh man-advantage of the game, D’Alvise picked up his second goal of the contest and fifth of the year, knocking in a rebound with Dodge and Beca again assisting.
At 12:29, the Bears closed the gap to 4-2 with a power-play marker from senior Jeff Prough. Devin Timberlake and Hurley assisted.
Brown pulled its goaltender with 1:54 left in regulation, but could not pull any closer.
Clarkson out shot the Bears 35-31. Senior David Leggio (Williamsville, NY) made 29 saves for the Knights to improve his record to 9-2. Sophomore Dan Rosen posted 31 stops for the Bears. Clarkson was 2-of-8 on the power play while the Bears were 2-of-7 with the man advantage.
