Named a finalist for the ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Year Award earlier in the day, sophomore Jake Kielly (Eden Prairie, MN) was in top form on Saturday night, backstopping Clarkson University to a 3-0 victory over Colgate in Game 2 of the best-of-three quarterfinal series before 2,827 fans at Cheel Arena.
Clarkson and Colgate will meet in the deciding Game 3 on Sunday night with the winner advancing to Lake Placid next weekend for the ECAC Hockey Championship Tournament. The Raiders won the first game of the series, 2-1 on Friday.
The Golden Knights improved their record to 21-9-6, while Colgate falls to 17-16-6.
Postgame audio head Coach Casey Jones
Kielly, who is also a Top-10 Finalist for the Mike Richter Award as the best goaltender in NCAA Hockey, made 19 saves to post his eighth shutout of the year.
Clarkson, which put in a full 60 minutes on Saturday, outshot Colgate 34-19, and held the upper hand in specialty teams play. The Knights went 1-of-4 on the power play and killed off all four of the visitors’ man-advantage chances.
Much like Friday’s game, Clarkson came out with a strong first-period effort, outshooting the Raiders 14-6. Sophomore Haralds Egle (Liepaia, Latvia) converted on one of those chances with a power-play tally at 11:56. Egle took a pass from freshman Josh Dickinson (Georgetown, ONT), skated behind and around the net and fired in a hard wrist shot for his fifth goal of the season with five seconds remaining in the man-advantage. Freshman defenseman Jere Astren (Helsinki, Finland) also assisted on the goal that ended Colgate’s string of successful penalty kills at 21.
After a scoreless second period, the Green and Gold struck quickly to start the final frame, connecting for a pair of goals in the opening minute.
Sophomore assistant captain Devin Brosseau (St. Lambert, QUE) started things off 24 seconds in, scoring from the bottom of the left circle after taking pass from classmate Sheldon Rempal (Calgary, ALB).
Junior Marly Quince (Sioux Lookout, ONT) made it 3-0 at 57 seconds with his second goal of the weekend. Junior linemate Juho Jokiharju (Tampere, Finland) started the play when he forced a Colgate turnover behind the Raiders’ net and fed a quick pass out front to Quince, who buried a shot from the slot for his fifth goal of the season, giving the Knights comfortable lead.
Clarkson outshot the Raiders 11-7 over the final 20 minutes.
