Karpowich sets career save record in 3-2 win

TROY — Paul Karpowich set the career saves record for Clarkson and Nick Tremblay scored a big goal in the third period as the Golden Knights edged Rensselaer 3-2 before 4,346 in an ECAC Hockey game at the Houston Field House on Saturday night.

A save early in the second period sent Karpowich past former Golden Knight Dan Murphy (1994-98) as Clarkson’s all-time leader in saves. Murphy’s record was 3,375. Karpowich finished with 29 saves Saturday.

Clarkson (12-11-5 overall, 6-5-3 conference) answered Friday’s frustrating 5-2 loss at Union, which saw the Golden Knights give up four goals in the first period, by scoring the first two goals of Saturday’s game.

Both goals came by former Northern Athletic Conference players, as Norwood’s Alex Boak opened the scoring with a goal at 2 minutes, 38 seconds of the first period and Ogdensburg’s Jake Morley scored a power-play goal at 11:03 of the first to make it 2-0.

“Generally we come out of the gate pretty good,” Clarkson coach Casey Jones said. “We were able to capitalize on some scoring opportunities initially. We did some good things tonight. At times (RPI) exposed a couple things we have to work on there.”

RPI (7-18-1, 4-9-1), which had won three straight games, answered with a goal from Guy Leboeuf at 13:28 of the first period to cut Clarkson’s lead to 2-1.

The Engineers began to take control of the game as the second period started and outshot Clarkson 22-11 over the final 40 minutes.

RPi tied the game with a power-play goal from Matt Tinordi at 9:38 of the second period.

“I thought we got a little tired as the game wore on,” Jones said. “They hemmed us in a little bit there. I thought we showed some character. I thought they were a different team than we played (earlier this season). They had a little bit more speed through the neutral zone.”

Clarkson’s game-winner was a two-on-one breakaway with the team’s two leading scorers. Louke Oakley fed Tremblay with a pass and he beat RPI goalie Bryce Merriam with a shot at 13:05 of the final period.

Clarkson moved into fifth place in the conference standings after the game and salvaged a weekend split.

“You won’t stay with the pack if you are having zero points on the weekend,” Jones said. “At this point and time you get a chance to get points on the road, it’s critical.”