With its most convincing win of the season, a 7-0 victory over Brown in Providence, RI on Saturday, the Clarkson University Women’s Hockey team capped off a stellar start to the New Year in its opening weekend of the 2016 portion of the schedule.
Up by a touchdown after two periods, the Golden Knights cruised to the lopsided win against the Bears (3-13, 1-9) after skating by Yale 5-2 in New Haven, CT on Friday night. Clarkson improves its record to 17-3-2 overall and 5-3-2 in ECAC Hockey action. The Green and Gold will play their first home games since early December when they host Dartmouth and Harvard next weekend at Cheel Arena.
“I thought the team played another strong game today to cap off a very good weekend,” stated Head Coach Matt Desrosiers. “I think the key to our success today and this weekend was the entire team worked hard and contributed in in all areas of the game. We really showed our depth which is something we will need to continue to do during the remainder of the season.”
Clarkson had five different goal scorers, including senior assistant captain, defenseman Erin Ambrose and freshman Cassidy Vinkle, who both tallied twice.
Senior assistant captains Olivia Howe and Cayley Mercer also enjoyed a productive day with three and two assists, respectively. With her two points, Mercer joined her older sister, Carley ’14, in Clarkson’s coveted Century Club. Mercer, who has 44 goals and 56 assists through 101 career games, is the tenth Golden Knight to reach 100 career points.
Vinkle opened the scoring on her first career collegiate goal at 4:07 of the first period. Classmates Kelly Mariani and Loren Gabel added the next two goals for the Golden Knights before Ambrose scored a power-play marker to make it 4-0 Clarkson after 20 minutes of play.
After goals from Vinkle and sophomore Lauren Lefler, Mercer had an assist on Ambrose’s second goal at 10:55 of the middle frame to reach the century mark. Mercer leads the Green and Gold in scoring with 34 points on 17 goals and 17 assists this season.
Junior Genevieve Bannon also set up two goals to help Clarkson reach its highest goal total of the season.
The Knights had a 39-14 advantage in shots. Clarkson scored on one of its two extra-man opportunities and killed off both of the Bears’ power plays.
Clarkson goaltenders, sophomore goaltender Shea Tiley (nine saves) and junior McKenzie Johnson (five stops) combined for the shutout, the Knights’ eighth of the season.
