Princeton, NJ - Sophomore John Sullivan (New Bedford, NH) took a pass in the slot from linemate, senior Trevor Edwards (Carleton Place, ONT) and scored with 16 seconds left in overtime to lift the Clarkson University Hockey team to a come-from-behind 5-4 victory over Princeton at Hobey Baker Rink on Saturday night. The Golden Knights, who lost 6-3 at Yale on Friday despite out shooting the Bulldogs 48-33, improved their record to 9-8-4 overall and to 4-4-1 in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC). Clarkson continues its current five-game road trip at Dartmouth and Vermont next weekend.
“I thought we deserved a better fate this weekend,” stated head coach George Roll. “We played very well in both games and only got two points. We are generating a lot of offense and getting a lot of pucks to the net. We could be scoring six or seven goals a game very easily. The effort is there. If we continue to play like we did this weekend, we will win a lot of games the rest of the way.”
The Knights overcame deficits of 2-0 midway through the first and 4-2 early in the third to run their unbeaten streak over Princeton to 13 straight games (11-0-2). The Tigers opened the scoring just 2:36 into the first and made it 2-0 at 10:22.
Just 13 seconds later, however, junior Mac Faulkner (King City, ONT) tipped in a shot from the point by freshman Nathan Beausoleil (Moose Creek, ONT) for his ninth goal of the year to give Clarkson its first goal. Junior Chris Blight (Cambridge, ONT), who also assisted on the Knights’ first goal, tied the score at 10:38 of the second, finishing off a perfect feed from senior Rob McFeeters (Woodville, ONT).
Princeton regained the lead just over two minutes later to take a 3-2 lead after forty minutes of play. The Tigers scored again 28 seconds into the third to take a two-goal advantage, at 4-2, before the Green and Gold mounted their rally.
Freshman Brodie Rutherglen (Trail, BC) tallied his first career goal during a scramble in front at 1:14 to start the comeback. Edwards tied the contest at 8:14 when his quick wrist shot from behind the goal line deflected in off the back of Princeton goaltender B.J. Sklapsky for his sixth goal of the season and fifth goal over the past three games. John Sullivan assisted.
Edwards then set-up the game winner when he took a pass from John Sullivan at the left circle and skated to the side of the net where he sent a pass back into the slot for Sullivan, who knocked in his fifth goal of the season to cap off the Knights’ sixth straight win over the Tigers.
“Trevor and Sully have been playing awesome lately,” commented Roll. “Ever since we got back from the Christmas break it seems like they have scored in every game. They have really given us a jump and taken the pressure off of our other lines.”
For the second straight game, Clarkson registered over 40 shots on goal, out shooting Princeton 41-26. Sophomore Dustin Traylen (Kirkland, QUE) posted 22 saves. Both teams struggled on the power play with the Knights going 0-of-7 and the Tigers going 0-of-5 with the man advantage.
