@St. Lawrence 2, CORNELL 1 … Box Score | Game Recap | Video Highlights
@Clarkson 3, CORNELL 3 (SOW)… Box Score | Game Recap | Video Highlights
The North Country games were difficult having to deal with the several suspensions (including my one game) and injuries from the previous weekend. We had a short bench with only eight forwards and 10 defensemen. I watched the Friday night game from the stands and was proud to see the team battle, especially in the third period, though we came up short.
On Friday night, St. Lawrence took a 1-0 lead at 9:14 of the first period and the Saints out shot us, 12-5. We kept battling and tied the game at 2:17 of the second period. Senior defenseman Hank Kempf recorded his first goal of the season, converting a rebound to make it 1-1. At the 6:53 mark of the second period, the home team regained the lead when a long shot deflected into the net off our goaltender’s blocker.
We started the third period with a man advantage, but once again struggled on the power play. But we did a nice job killing off a penalty halfway through the final period. Late in the third period, we had another power-play opportunity but just couldn’t find the tying goal. We did generate a lot of shots (16) in the first eight minutes of the period.
Senior goaltender Ian Shane made 27 saves, as did the St. Lawrence netminder. We were 0-for-4 on the power play, and the Saints were 0-for-2. During the game, Shane recorded his 2,000th save of his career, ranking him 10th on our all-time list. We also held St. Lawrence to two goals or less over the last 18 meetings.
On Saturday two forwards and I returned to the bench, but we still had only nine forwards and 10 defensemen. I was worried about our energy level, but we came out quickly and did a great job getting a lead. At 3:35 of the first period, sophomore defenseman Hoyt Stanley fired a backhanded shot past the goaltender to give us the 1-0 lead. About two minutes later, we got up 2-0, on a goal by sophomore forward Jake Kraft when he converted a rebound from Hank Kempf’s shot. At 13:17 Clarkson scored to make it 2-1.
In second period at 6:30, we increased the lead to 3-1 when senior forward Sullivan Mack blasted home a shot. Fatigue caught up with us in the second half of the second period and Clarkson scored twice at 17:02 and 18:35 to tie the game at 3-3.
No one scored in the overtime period even though we had 31 seconds of 4-on-3 play late in the extra session. We won the shootout, 2-1, with goals from junior forward Dalton Bancroft and sophomore defenseman Ben Robertson.
Shane made 34 saves, and the Clarkson goalie had 24. We were 0-for-4 on power play, and they were 1-for-4.
We talked about how we had to muster the mental toughness to grind and they did just that. Getting two points in the standings was a great job for our guys. Though our special teams have not been that special, our penalty kill has turned the corner in the second half of season and is playing well. The power play unit has hit goal posts eight times in the last four games. I know that will soon turn in our favor.
This weekend at Lynah against RPI and Union, we hope to have Sean Donaldson and Ondrej Psenicka back from injury. Kyle Penny should also return, He served a suspension this past weekend but wouldn’t have played anyway due to the flu, so maybe we caught our first break this season. Hopefully, Charlie Major will be back the following week.
I’m taking the weekend off for my son John’s wedding so Associate Head Coach Casey Jones will be managing the team.
Hope you will join the team at Lynah Rink this weekend for our first games with RPI (10-14-2, 5-9-0) and Union (15-9-2, 8-5-1). In the ECAC standings, we sit 5 points below Union and 5 points above RPI with eight games remaining in the regular season.