Lake Placid, NY – A raucous third period saw four goals in just four minutes, setting up a tense tail end of the frame and overtime, but Sheldon Rempal turned that stress into euphoria as the Clarkson University Men’s Hockey team came back from three goals down to claim a 5-4 victory over Harvard University in the ECAC Semifinals Friday night at 1980 Herb Brooks Arena.
Clarkson moved to 23-9-6 on the season, advancing to its first ECAC Hockey Championship game since 2007, the last year that the Golden Knights won the tournament. Harvard dropped to 15-14-4. The Knights will take on seventh-seeded Princeton University, which defeated Cornell 4-1 in the other semifinal, at 7:35 pm on Saturday night.
The Knights found themselves on their heels a bit in overtime, but a 4-on-4 rush allowed Rempal to split through some Harvard defenders to score the game-winner. Devin Brosseau brought the puck up ice and slid a pass over to linemate Nico Sturm. The sophomore center then dropped a pass back to Rempal, who tipped in a backhand to bring the Clarkson throng to its feet at 11:38 in overtime.
Despite some quality early scoring chances, things didn’t start off great for the Knights. Clarkson had two legitimate opportunities midway through the period as a Sheldon Rempal shot on a 3-on-2 went just wide and Kevin Charyszyn’s wrist shot rattled off the pipe with a little over seven minutes off the clock.
The Crimson broke the brief scoreless streak at 11:37 in the first period, only 18 seconds after Clarkson was whistled for a penalty. Ryan Donato collected the puck near the top of the right circle and sent a pass down to Ty Pelton-Byce near the end line. Pelton-Byce then sent in a centering pass to Reilly Walsh, who one-timed a slap shot past Kielly.
The Knights enjoyed two power play chances late in the first, including one that overlapped into the start of the second period, but could not get anything out of either. It was Harvard that picked up another goal on the power play, this time 39 seconds in with an extra-skater. Again, the Crimson cycled the puck around and Lewis Zerter-Gossage beat the undermanned Clarkson defense and Kielly at 5:47, with the final passes coming from defensemen Reilly Walsh and Adam Fox.
The Green and Gold had a 2-on-1 opportunity about eight minutes into the second, but the missed shot turned into a rush for Harvard, which converted at 7:58, with Pelton-Byce scoring on assists from Donato and Zerter-Gossage.
Down 3-0, Clarkson ended its power-play struggles late in the second period, getting on the board at 13:57 in its fourth chance with an extra attacker. Sophomore Haralds Egle sent a pass through traffic to Jack Jacome, and the freshman finished things off with a wrist shot in close to make the score 3-1.
The third period was where all of the action occurred, with fans barely able to catch their breath. Harvard appeared to have scored a back breaker, as a turnover in the zone right off the opening faceoff of the period led to an unassisted goal for Ty Pelton-Byce, giving the Crimson a 4-1 lead only six seconds into the third. However, the Knights rattled off three goals in less than four minutes after Harvard’s fourth goal to tie the game. Only nine seconds after the Harvard goal, Nic Pierog scored on a shot from the slot, pulling the Knights back within two. Less than a minute later, Clarkson was on the power play and Sheldon Rempal found Devin Brosseau from behind the net, trimming the deficit to one at 1:11. And at 4:02, Clarkson completed its comeback with another score, as Haralds Egle skated around the net and discovered Dylan Gareau open in front. Just three minutes later, Clarkson appeared to have taken the lead, but Jordan Schneider’s shot banged off the pipe as a shell-shocked Harvard team was just trying to halt Clarkson’s momentum.
The final three-plus minutes almost seemed like a power play for Clarkson, as the Knights had all kinds of chances with Harvard players dropping to their knees trying to block shots. However, with 30 seconds remaining, the Crimson’s Ryan Donato had a good scoring opportunity, skating down the near side of the boards and sending a wrist shot to Kielly’s stick-side, which the sophomore denied to ensure overtime.
It was Donato again who put pressure on the Knights about five minutes into overtime with three straight chances at Kielly, but Adam Baughman might have produced the best chance when his wrist shot nicked the post and bounced out. Once there was a cessation of action, Clarkson took a timeout to regroup, but it still took the Green and Gold another 75 seconds to get the puck over the red line. Once they did, the Knights got in close on Harvard goaltender Merrick Madsen twice, including Sheldon Rempal skating through four Harvard defenders for a wrister in the slot at the seven-minute mark. Just 90 seconds later, Rempal found the back of the Crimson net for the game-winner.
Kielly finished with 29 saves for the Knights, while Merrick Madsen denied 31 shots for Harvard. Haralds Egle assisted on three goals while both Rempal and Brosseau scored a goal and an assist each. Clarkson owned a narrow 36-33 edge in shots and finished 2-for-6 on the power play after going scoreless in its first three chances. Harvard was 2-for-4 on the power play.
