Power plays were the difference in the Clarkson University Hockey team’s game against 5th-ranked Minnesota on Saturday in Minneapolis. Unfortunately for the Golden Knights, the home team benefited from five man-advantage opportunities and capitalized on two of them to hand Clarkson a 2-1 loss on the big ice at 3M Arena at Mariucci.
Ranked 8th in the national polls, Clarkson, which also lost to Minnesota 3-1 on Friday, completes a tough, season-opening, non-league stretch to the 2017-18 campaign with a 4-3-1 mark. The Knights open their ECAC Hockey slate next weekend hosting New York Capital District rivals Rensselaer and Union at Cheel Arena.
Clarkson, which was on the wrong end of the power play charts in Friday’s loss, going 0-of-1 while the Gophers went 1-of-5, went scoreless in three man-advantage chances on Saturday, while Minnesota won the game with a 2-of-5 effort.
The Knights were outshot 23-19, including a by a 7-2 margin in the opening 20 minutes. Despite the shot disadvantage the Green and Gold held the lead early in the contest.
Postgame audio Head Coach Casey Jones
Just 6:06 into the first period Clarkson’s leading scorer, sophomore Sheldon Rempal (Calgary, ALB) scored his fourth of the year when his shot deflected off the Minnesota goaltender and trickled just over line. Sophomore linemates Nico Sturm (Augsburg, Germany) and Devin Brosseau (St. Lambert, QUE) assisted.
A little more than three minutes later Minnesota (5-3) capitalized on a five-minute major chance and got on the scoreboard with a power-play tally from Leon Bristedt at 9:45.
Just 23 seconds into the middle frame, Minnesota took the lead with another power-play marker, this time off the stick of Mike Szmatula for the game-winner.
Clarkson had its best period of the weekend in the third on Saturday, out shooting the Big 10 foe 8-2 over the final 20 minutes, but could not come up with the equalizer.
Sophomore Jake Kielly (Eden Prairie, MN) made 21 saves.
