A strong effort on the road against the 8th-ranked team in the country came up just short for the Clarkson University Hockey team, which fell 3-1 to Yale at Ingalls Rink in New Haven, CT on Saturday night.
After stringing together an eight-game unbeaten streak (7-0-1) through mid-January into early February, the Golden Knights have now dropped three straight with two games remaining in the regular season. Clarkson, which lost 5-2 at Brown on Friday, stands at 16-13-3 overall and 8-9-3 in ECAC Hockey. Holding down 8th place in the league standings, the Green and Gold host Harvard and Dartmouth next weekend at Cheel Arena.
Postgame audio from Head Coach Casey Jones
A slow start at Brown on Friday cost Clarkson, but the Knights made sure they were ready against Yale (18-5-4, 13-4-3) and came out with one of their best first-period efforts of the season. Just 2:49 into the game, freshman defenseman Aaron Thow put Clarkson on top. Thow connected on a shot from the left point for his second career goal with junior Jordan Boucher and sophomore Brett Gervais assisting.
The Knights outshot the Bulldogs 11-9 through the opening 20 minutes.
Boasting the number one team defense in the country, Yale began to take control over the final 40 minutes and limited the Knights to just five shots each in both the second and third periods, while combining for 30 shots over that span.
After a scoreless second period, the Bulldogs got on the scoreboard at 5:19 of the third when Joe Snively tucked in a wraparound shot for his 10th goal of the year. Stu Wilson knocked in a rebound for the game-winner at 17:31. Yale, the hottest team in the country, sealed the deal with an empty-net goal by Ryan Hitchcock right before the final buzzer to close out its seventh straight victory.
It was the first time this season Clarkson lost when holding the lead through two periods (9-1-1).
The Knights enjoyed mixed success in specialty teams’ play, killing off all four of the Bulldogs’ power plays, but failing to score on any of their five man-advantage chances.
Yale outshot Clarkson 39-21. Making his 14th consecutive start senior Greg Lewis played a solid game in the Clarkson crease with 36 saves on 38 shots. Yale’s Alex Lyon, the nation’s number one goaltender in save percentage and goals against average, stopped 20 shots.
