Schenectady, NY - Senior Steve Zalewski (New Hartford, NY) reached a career milestone and a pair of freshmen contributed goals as the Clarkson University Hockey team skated to a 3-3 ovetime tie at Union College on Friday. With the one point in league play, the Golden Knights clinched a top four spot in the ECAC Hockey standings and gained a first-round bye in the upcoming playoffs.
Ranked 11th/12th in the nation, Clarkson stands in first place in the conference, one point ahead of Princeton, with a 12-4-3 league mark. Overall, the Green and Gold stand at 17-10-4. The Knights play at Rensselaer on Saturday, at 7:00 p.m to close out a four-game road trip.
Zalewski notched his 100th career point with a power-play tally and rookies Tom Pizzo (Rochester, NY) and Brandon DeFazio (Oakville, ONT) also scored goals to pace the Clarkson offense. Senior David Leggio (Williamsville, NY) made 34 saves as Union out shot the Knights 37-27.
The teams traded power-play goals in the first period for a 1-1 tie through the opening 20 minutes. Union struck first on Jason’s Walters’ goal at 13:15, which came with one minute remaining in the Dutchmen’s second man-advantage opportunity of the period.
With the first frame winding down, Clarkson tied it up as Zalewski connected with a power-play shot from the right circle with just 4.5 seconds left in the period for his team-high 17th goal of the season. Senior defenseman Grant Clitsome (Gloucester, ONT) and sophomore Matt Beca (Mississauga, ONT) assisted. Through 143 career games, Zalewski has 54 goals and 46 assists.
Generating momentum from only their third power-play goal over their past 31 chances, the Knights came out strong to start the second and took a two-goal lead just over two minutes into stanza. Pizzo picked up a rebound in the slot off of a wrap-around attempt by sophomore Tim Marks (Brownville, NY) for his second collegiate goal just 59 seconds into the period. Junior Dan Tuttle (Augusta, ME) also assisted.
At 2:07, Clarkson made it 3-1 with DeFazio’s third goal of the season. DeFazio controlled a rebound in the slot after senior David Cayer’s (Longueuil, QUE) shot from the side of the net was kicked out to between the circles.
Clarkson had two excellent chances to add to its lead with back-to-back power-play opportunities, but the Dutchmen were able to hold the Knights off and build up their own momentum after the successful penalty kills.
Union knotted the game at 3-3 with a pair of goals 1:51 apart late in the middle frame. Adam Presizniuk scored at 13:48 followed by Lane Caffaro’s power-play tally at 15:39.
The Knights had an excellent opportunity to take the lead in the third with a five-minute power play early in the stanza, but Union shutdown Clarkson for the first three minutes, and then a Knight penalty nulified the remaining two minutes of the man advantage.
Clarkson appeared to break the tie with its fourth goal with 56.6 left in regulation, but the goal was waved off after the officials viewed a replay, which showed the net was off its moorings.
The Dutchmen went on their sixth power play of the game with 25.5 seconds to play in overtime, and with just 7.8 seconds remaining Union’s Presizniuk went in on a breakaway, but Leggio made a big pad save to turn away the scoring attempt and preserve the tie.
Clarkson was 1-of-6 on the power play, while Union was 2-of-6 with the man advantage.
