A weekend in New England did not go as planned for the Clarkson University Hockey team as the Golden Knights dropped a pair of 5-1 decisions, losing to Dartmouth in Hanover, NH on Saturday after suffering the same fate at Harvard in Cambridge, MA on Friday.
Clarkson, which entered the weekend ranked 16th in the nation, has lost three straight to fall to 2-4-2 overall and 1-3 in ECAC Hockey play. The Knights return to Cheel Arena next weekend when they host Quinnipiac and Princeton.
“It’s frustrating,” remarked Clarkson head coach George Roll. “We came out with a lot of fire. The first period may have been our best period in a long time. We had so many chances to get the game to 2-0 or maybe even 3-0. It is just the way it is going for us. There were a lot of positives tonight. The line of Tim Marks, Dan Tuttle and Jake Morley had an awesome night. I thought Nick Tremblay had his best game for us. It is something we have to work through. It is hard right now. We have to finish our chances. Tonight, I think we had our most Grade “A” chances of the season. We could not finish around the net, but it wasn’t for lack of effort. It just seems the bounces are not going our way. We will have to find a way to make our own breaks.”
Freshman Jake Morley (Ogdensburg, NY) gave the Knights the early lead against Dartmouth with his first collegiate goal. Sophomore Dan Reed (Walworth, ONT) dug the puck out of the corner and fed Morley in the high slot where the rookie left wing connected on a quick wrist shot at 11:29. Immediately after the goal, the Green and Gold generated some tremendous offensive pressure in a bid for another score, but several shots went just wide keeping it a 1-0 Clarkson lead.
Late in the first, Dartmouth (4-2, 4-1) tallied a pair of specialty teams goals 49 seconds apart to take a 2-1 lead into intermission. Four seconds into a power play, the Big Green connected for the first goal when Joe Stajskal put a shot through a screen past Clarkson junior goaltender Tim Potter (Bakersfield, CA) at 19:02. At 19:51, Matt Reber gathered in a loose puck at the Big Green’s own blueline and skated in on a breakaway, putting a shorthanded shot in close past Potter.
Dartmouth added two more midway through the second period, scoring twice in an 84-second span. Adam Estoclet scored at 10:49 followed by Connor Goggin’s tally at 12:13.
The Big Green sealed the win with Connor Shields’ goal at 18:37 of the third.
Dartmouth out shot Clarkson 32-28. Potter started in the Clarkson goal and made 14 saves on 18 shots before leaving after the Big Green’s fourth goal. Freshman Paul Karpowich (Thunder Bay, ONT) came on in relief and posted 13 saves through 27:47 of play.
The Knights went 0-of-4 on the power play, while Dartmouth was 1-of-2 with the man advantage.
