Second period plagues Knights
DULUTH, Minn. — Once again a tough second period on the road proved costly for the Clarkson University men's hockey team.
The Golden Knights fell 4-1 to Minnesota-Duluth in a nonconference game at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center Friday night.
The game was scoreless after the first period and the Bulldogs (4-2-1) took control in the second, scoring three goals and outshooting Clarkson 20-3.
Clarkson (3-3) gave up 50 shots on goal and did not score until Jake Morley put in a power-play goal at 16 minutes, 20 seconds of the third period.
"I think we'll be better (tonight)," Clarkson coach George Roll said. "A lot of it will be predicated on our health, too. I'm not making excuses, but tonight was awful difficult with the guys who went down. The big thing I'm looking for is just more effort. I was disappointed tonight in the second period. They completely dominated the period and controlled the game.
"They were the better team tonight. They were stronger on loose pucks. They had good team speed we hadn't seen yet."
The Golden Knights entered the game somewhat shorthanded as leading goal scorer Matt Beca was out with the flu and missed the morning skate. He played briefly in the game.
To make matters worse, Clarkson lost forwards Corey Tamblyn and Scott Freeman to ankle injuries. Both players are questionable for tonight's game.
Then just 4 minutes, 46 seconds into the game, the Golden Knights lost another of their top forwards when Brandon DeFazio, Beca's linemate, was given a major penalty and a game misconduct for a check from behind.
The Bulldogs also lost a player on a similar call when Jordan Fulton was given a game misconduct for a hit from behind on Clarkson defenseman Bryan Rufenach late in the first period.
Minnesota-Duluth scored two goals just 42 seconds apart early in the second period to take control.
Mike Connolly scored the first goal at 5:53 and Jack Connolly added another goal at 6:35 on a shot that went in off his skate. The goal was reviewed on video and it was ruled that Connolly did not make any attempt to direct the puck into the net with his skate.
The Bulldogs added a final goal at 10:54 of the period on another shot from Jack Connolly.
It was the third straight bad second period on the road for Clarkson. At Michigan State during the first weekend of the season, Clarkson was outscored 5-0 in the two second periods.
A lone bright spot for Clarkson on Friday was sophomore goalie Richie LaVeau, who made 46 saves.
"He was outstanding," Roll said. "He was our best player. He was one of the few guys I thought really came and competed. Certainly the score was not indicative of the way he played. I thought he was square to the pucks, aggressive and very good."
The Bulldogs ended the scoring with an empty-net goal from Drew Akins with 53 seconds left in the game.
SUNY POTSDAM 6, SUNY BROCKPORT 3
Connor Treacy scored one goal and added three assists to lead the Bears to a win over SUNY Brockport in a SUNYAC game in Potsdam.
It was the debut game for new SUNY Potsdam coach Chris Bernard, a Brasher Falls native. Fraser Smith, Bryan Black and Todd Hosmer each finished with one goal and one assist. Matt Rhymer and Zack Juliano also scored for the Bears.
Sean O'Malley, Chris Berardini and James Cody scored for SUNY Brockport.
WOMEN'S HOCKEY
ST. LAWRENCE 4, YALE 0
Vanessa Emond scored two goals and provided one assist to lead the Saints past Yale (0-1-1, 0-1) in an ECAC Hockey game in Canton.
Kayla Sullivan and Britni Smith also scored for SLU (3-2-3, 1-1). Brittony Chartier made 15 saves for the shutout.
CLARKSON 1, BROWN 0
Katelyn Ptolemy scored off a pass from Kali Gillanders at 12:55 of the third period to give the Golden Knights a win over Brown (1-2, 0-1) in an ECAC Hockey game in Potsdam. Lauren Dahm made nine saves for Clarkson (8-1-1, 2-0).
