A three-goal, third-period rally by the Clarkson University Hockey team lifted the Golden Knights to their first ECAC Hockey victory since early November as the Green and Gold stunned 19th-ranked Yale 4-3 before 3,087 fans at Ingalls Rink in New Haven, CT on Friday night.
Clarkson, which broke out of a three-game losing streak, improves its record to 4-13-4 overall and to 2-6-1 in ECAC Hockey. The Knights, who presented sixth-year head coach George Roll with his 100th win at the University with the victory over Yale, plays at Brown on Saturday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. Yale, which saw its four-game winning streak come to a halt, falls to 11-5 overall and to 6-3 in the league.
“I am proud of our guys,” stated Roll. “The guys stuck with it and found a way to gut it out against a very good club. Yale is one of the best teams we have seen this season. I was impressed with their team speed, but all of a sudden when we got that first one in the third period to get it back to a one-goal game you could see everyone on our bench starting to get excited. Richie (LaVeau) was outstanding in net tonight. Hopefully this win will get us jump started for the rest of the way.”
Trailing 3-1 entering the third period and out shot 24-13 through the first 40 minutes, the Knights found a burst of energy early in the final stanza, connecting for three goals in a span of 3:10 to pull out the road win.
Freshman Julien Cayer (Longueuil, QUE) started the rally when he connected on a quick, low shot from the bottom of the right circle at 7:39 after taking a pass out of the corner by classmate Nick Tremblay (Candiac, QUE) for his third goal of the season. Senior defenseman Adam Bellows (Lancaster, NY) came through with his first collegiate goal at 9:45 to knot the game at three-all. Sophomore Scott Freeman (Whitby, ONT) found Bellows all alone at the top of the slot where the veteran rearguard fired in a shot to provide the Green and Gold with more momentum. Sophomore Lauri Tuohimaa (Helsinki, Finland) also assisted.
Senior Shea Guthrie (Carleton Place, ONT), capped off a two-goal night with the game-winner 64 seconds after Bellows’ goal. Senior co-captain Phil Paquet (Quebec City, QUE) took a shot from the right point that bounced off the backboards and to Guthrie at the bottom of the right circle where he lifted in a shot over the Yale goaltender at 10:49 to cap off the comeback. Senior Chris D’Alvise (Mississauga, ONT) also assisted on the game-winner.
Freshman Richie LaVeau (Arlington Heights, IL) recorded his first collegiate win with a 29-save effort. One of the rookie’s biggest saves came with 1:29 remaining when he stopped a shot by Kevin Limbert during a 3-on-1 rush by Yale as the Bulldogs had the extra attacker on after pulling their goaltender.
Yale out shot the Knights 32-24, but Clarkson enjoyed an 11-8 advantage over the final 20 minutes. The Knights went 1-of-4 on the power play and killed off all four of Yale’s man-advantage opportunities.
Yale enjoyed the better of the play in the first period, out shooting Clarkson 14-6 in the opening stanza, but it was the Knights who got on the scoreboard first for only the seventh time this season. Skating on the power play, Guthrie snapped off a quick shot from the left circle after taking a pass from junior Matt Beca (Mississauga, ONT) for his third goal of the season. Freeman also set up the power-play tally, which came on Clarkson’s second shot of the game.
The Bulldogs came back to tie it with a shorthanded marker at 11:12. Eleven seconds into a Clarkson power play, Denney Kearney found a loose puck and sent Broc Little in for a breakaway.
In a penalty-free second period, Yale continued to control the play and grabbed the lead with a pair of goals two minutes apart for a 3-1 advantage early in the frame. At 5:30, Jeff Anderson’s scored on a shot in close that trickled over the line underneath LaVeau. Sean Backman followed at 7:01 when his shot from down low deflected in off a skate in front of LaVeau to give the home team a two-goal lead.
