Senior David Leggio (Williamsville, NY) posted his third shutout of the season and sixth career whitewash behind a 24-save effort to backstop Clarkson University to a 1-0 victory over Yale in ECAC Hockey action before 2,380 fans at Cheel Arena Friday night.
Senior David Cayer (Longueuil, QUE) tallied the lone goal of the contest as the eighth-ranked Golden Knights extended their unbeaten streak at home to 19 straight games (15-0-4), including a 6-0-0 mark in Potsdam this season. Clarkson, which stands at 8-3 overall and in first place in the league with a 5-1 mark, hosts Brown on Saturday. The Bears came from behind to tie St. Lawrence 4-4 in Canton on Friday. Yale, which plays the Saints on Saturday, falls to 2-3-2 overall and to 1-2-2 in ECAC Hockey.
Clarkson, with two power-plays in the scoreless first period, controlled the opening 20 minutes with an 11-8 shot advantage, but it was the Bulldogs who had the two best opportunities to take the initial lead. With eight minutes left in the opening stanza, sophomore Chris Cahill (Haverhill, MA) snapped off a quick wrist shot from the bottom of the right circle that rang off the far post. Late in a Clarkson power play, sophomore Sean Backman (Cos Cob, CT) stole the puck at center ice and got a shot off on a breakaway, but Leggio turned aside the attempt with a sliding pad save in the final three minutes.
Yale opened the second period with another excellent scoring opportunity when, while on the power play, Backman’s shot from the top of the slot hit off the cross bar and deflected down past Leggio, but did not cross over the goal line.
At 13:53 of the middle frame the Knights broke the scoreless deadlock Junior Chris D’Alvise (Mississauga, ONT) found Cayer all alone at the right post where the senior lifted in a shot top shelf into the far corner for his fourth goal of the season and 96th career point. Freshman defenseman Tom Pizzo (Rochester, NY) also assisted.
Clarkson overcame penalty trouble late in the second and early in the third as it killed off 69 seconds of a Yale two-man advantage. In a bid to tie the game, the Bulldogs pulled sophomore goaltender Billy Blasé (Santa Monica, CA) for the extra attacker with 31 seconds left and the faceoff deep in the Clarkson zone, but managed just one long shot on net that Leggio easily turned away.
The Knights out shot Yale 26-24. Leggio posted 10 of his stops in the third period as Clarkson won its sixth straight over the Bulldogs. Blasé finished with 25 stops. Clarkson was 0-of-3 on the power play, while Yale went scoreless in five attempts with the man advantage.
