Two goals by junior Genevieve Bannon drove the Clarkson University Women’s Hockey team to a stirring 3-2 comeback victory over Colgate on Saturday afternoon at Starr Rink in Hamilton, NY.
Ranked fifth in the national polls, Clarkson reaches the 20-win mark for the fifth consecutive season, improving to 20-3-3 overall with a 8-3-3 ECAC Hockey record. Colgate is now 14-5-7 overall and 6-3-5 in conference.
“I thought we played well tonight and seemed to get better as the game went on,” said Clarkson Head Coach Matt Desrosiers. “I give a lot of credit to the players for remaining focused and confident after going down two goals. They showed a lot of character and determination to come back and win that game against a good Colgate team especially knowing how important those points were. We need to now turn our focus on preparing this week to play St Lawrence who have been playing well lately.”
Coming into the game, the two teams were tied for third in ECAC Hockey, with the winner able to move into a tie for second with an idle Princeton squad. In the early going, it looked like Colgate would take the opportunity to jump ahead in the standings. The Raiders jumped out to a 1-0 lead at 12:07 in the first period on a Shelby Perry power-play goal. They doubled their lead within a minute of starting the second period through a Megan Sullivan goal.
Clarkson did not crumble though. The Golden Knights drew one goal back at the 5:47 mark of the middle period. The goal came off the stick of freshman Rhyen McGill with sophomores Lauren Lefler and Amanda Titus picking up the assists. It is the third game in a row that McGill has scored for Clarkson.
Clarkson tied the game with just over five minutes remaining in the second. Bannon was the one who scored with junior assistant captain Cayley Mercer providing the assist. Bannon added her second goal of the game 5:14 into the third period, with senior captain Shannon MacAulay notching an assist.
Clarkson was able to hold its slim one-goal lead throughout the final three quarters of the third period and escape with the win. The Green and Gold tightened up its defense considerably as the game went on. After allowing nine Colgate shots in the first period, Clarkson allowed just six in the second and a paltry three over the final 20 minutes.
Clarkson finished with a 28-18 edge in shots. Clarkson was 0-of-2 on power-plays while Colgate scored once during its two extra-man opportunities. Sophomore goaltender Shea Tiley had 16 stops for Clarkson to pick up the win while her Colgate counterpart, Julia Vandyk made 25 saves in a losing effort.
Clarkson’s next two games will consist of a home-and-home series with rival St. Lawrence. First the two teams will meet in Canton on Thursday for a 7:00 pm game followed by a 3:00 pm game in Cheel Arena on Saturday afternoon.
