SHOT SPARKS WIN: Tamblyn's goal continues Golden Knights' hot streak

POTSDAM — It was just one of five goals scored in Friday's ECAC Hockey opener, but Corey Tamblyn's slap shot with 8.9 seconds left in the first period meant a lot to the Clarkson University men's hockey team.

The Golden Knights defeated rival Rensselaer 4-1 before 2,550 fans at Cheel Arena and Tamblyn's goal, which tied the game 1-1, provided a big spark.

“It just lit the place on fire,” Clarkson goalie Paul Karpowich said. “The crowd was back into it and it got the bench up.”

It also was costly for RPI (1-7 overall), which had just scored the first goal in a game for the first time all season, when freshman Ryan Haggerty redirected a shot from the point by defenseman Mike Bergin during a power play at 18 minutes, 6 seconds.

Instead of taking a lead into the first intermission for the first time all season, RPI had to regroup.

“That's just a terrible blunder,” RPI coach Seth Appert said. “It was bad execution. We talked on the bench about last shift, the clock. We made a mistake on the blue line, but then we make a mistake by backing in. The play should have never been out of our zone. But it also shouldn't have been a scoring chance. We should have just swung into him, take his time and space away. It should, at the very best, have been a snap shot by the top of the circles out by the wall. We back off, we don't want to go at a guy. We try to sag back and play goalie and deflect one in on our own goaltender.”

For Tamblyn, the goal was just an example of the spirit Clarkson is bringing to every game this season as the program tries to bounce back from three straight losing seasons.

“We just don't give up,” Tamblyn said. “We live by that and die by that.”

Clarkson (6-1-2) took the lead for good at 8:43 of the second period when Louke Oakley scored his sixth goal of the season, with assists going to Matt Zarbo and Julien Cayer.

“It was just a good pass by Zarbo,” Oakley said. “I just tried to put it on net and luckily it found its way in there.”

After Oakley's goal the game took a nasty turn for the rest of the second period, starting with a charging penalty by RPI's Mark McGowan that knocked Clarkson forward Mike Garlasco out of the game at 10:44.

Nine players were called for penalties in the next 5:42 and Clarkson's Alex Boak and RPI's Ryan Haggerty were each given misconducts.

“It was two rivals going at it,” Clarkson coach Casey Jones said. “That stuff happens. Both teams were sticking up for their teammates. I thought that we kept level heads there for a little bit, besides the one skirmish there. I thought we did a good job of staying disciplined.”

RPI did a good job of thwarting Clarkson's power play, which entered the game ranked fourth in the nation.

But the Golden Knights converted on their seventh and final chance of the night when Tamblyn produced his second goal of the game at 14:05 of the third period to extend Clarkson's lead to 3-1.

Tamblyn, along with linemates Jake Morley and Will Frederick, were valuable both offensively and defensively for the Golden Knights on Friday.

“They're going to see about 15 chances they didn't bury,” Jones said. “They were great tonight. They were hard on pucks and difficult to play against. They generated a lot. (Tamblyn) was all over the ice. They have good chemistry there.”

Nick Tremblay scored an empty-net goal at 17:02 of the third period to extend his goal-scoring streak to five games.

Friday's win extends Clarkson's unbeaten streak to seven games (6-0-1) and came against a team, that while struggling now, was in the NCAA Tournament a year ago.

“I think this was our most complete game so far this year,” Karpowich said. “We took it to them pretty good all night. We controlled the pace. It just looked like we were a step ahead tonight. It was a good win. I think we definitely answered a lot of questions tonight. That was our goal. We knew we were good and we were fast. This was our way of proving it tonight.”