With sole possession of first place in ECAC Hockey on the line, the fifth-ranked Clarkson University Women’s Hockey team upset third-ranked St. Lawrence 4-1 on Saturday afternoon in Appleton Arena.
Clarkson improves to 14-3-3 overall and a perfect 9-0-1 in conference. St. Lawrence suffers its first defeat of the season and is now 15-1-2 overall and 8-1-1 in ECAC Hockey.
In Thursday’s contest between the two teams, Clarkson was unable to crack the top-ranked penalty kill unit of St. Lawrence. That changed on Saturday though, as Clarkson’s first goal came during an extra man opportunity. It was co-captain Savannah Harmon who scored from the right circle to stake Clarkson to a 1-0 lead 9:32 into the game. Michaela Pejzlova and fellow captain Cayley Mercer picked up the assists.
Clarkson doubled its lead 16:25 into the second period on a goal that was very reminiscent of the Golden Knights’ second goal on Thursday. Assistant captain Genevieve Bannon broke out down the wing and drove deep into St. Lawrence territory. Bannon slipped a pass across the ice and into the path of Mercer who tapped home.
In the third period, Pejzlova, Bannon, and Mercer combined for two goals in a four- minute span to put the game out of reach. First, at 2:36, Bannon found Pejzlova in the slot and the freshman forward buried her shot. Just 3:31 later, Pejzlova returned the favor by passing to Bannon who was able to score. Mercer added assists on both goals to give her four points in the game, tying her career high, which also came against St. Lawrence.
Desperate to get back into the game, St. Lawrence pulled its goaltender to add an extra attacker. The gamble quickly paid dividends as Brooke Webster got the Saints on the board at 8:23. However, Clarkson was able to adjust to the extra pressure and prevent any further scoring to leave with the victory.
St. Lawrence held a 24-15 edge in shots, making it the first time this season that Clarkson has won despite being outshot. The Green and Gold were 1-4 on the power-play and were able to kill all four extra man opportunities for St. Lawrence. Shea Tiley made 23 saves for Clarkson while Grace Harrison had 11 stops for St. Lawrence.
Clarkson will close out the 2016 portion of its schedule with a home-and-home series with Syracuse. The two teams will meet in the Salt City on Friday, December 9th, before returning to Potsdam for a game the next day.
