With a strong push over the final 40 minutes, Clarkson was able to pull away from Dartmouth for a 4-0 victory on Senior Night at Cheel Arena.
The Golden Knights, who improved to 16-4 in ECAC Hockey for its most wins in league play since the 1998-99 campaign, have secured at least 2nd place in the conference standings and can finish first with a weekend sweep in Central NY next weekend. Clarkson plays at Colgate on Friday and then closes out the regular season at current ECAC Hockey front-runner Cornell on Saturday.
Ranked 5/6th in the national polls, Clarkson has skated to its most overall wins since the 1996-97 season with a 23-7-2 record.
Postgame audio Head Coach Casey Jones
Clarkson’s Class of 2020 enjoyed their night at Cheel. Goaltender Frank Marotte (Longueuil. QUE) posted 27 saves for his fourth shutout as a Golden Knight, right wing Haralds Egle (Liepaja, Latvia) scored twice for his third career multiple-goal outing and left wing Captain Devin Brosseau (St. Lambert, QUE) recorded two assists.
Junior center Zack Tsekos (Montreal, QUE) and sophomore defenseman Brian Hurley (Dellwood, MN) scored the other goals for the Green and Gold.
Clarkson started out slow as the Big Green enjoyed an 8-2 shot advantage before the Knights went on the first power play of the game at 12:31 of the first period. Although the Knights did not score, they did start to build some momentum.
Clarkson, which held a 19-5 shot advantage in the middle frame broke the scoreless deadlock early in the second period. Brosseau won a faceoff in the Dartmouth zone and passed off to Egle, who scored in front at 4:17 for the only goal the Green and Gold would need.
With three third-period tallies, the Knights put the game away.
Early in the final frame, sophomore Jamie Collins (Fergus, ONT) forced a turnover behind the Dartmouth net and fed a pass out to Hurley, who connected on a one-timer from the right circle at 3:24 for his third goal of the season.
At 13:39, Tsekos scored off a rush after sophomore Chris Klack (Georgetown, ONT) won a puck along the left boards in the neutral zone. Hurley also assisted.
Egle closed out the win with his second goal of the night and team-leading 14th of the year with 1:54 remaining. Brosseau and classmate, defenseman Shane Kuzmeski (Grayslake, IL) assisted.
Clarkson outshot the Big Green 32-27, including a 25-15 margin over the final 40 minutes.
Both teams were scoreless on the power play, the Knights 0-of-4 and Dartmouth 0-of-3.
