Suffering only its second league loss of 2008, the Clarkson University Hockey team fell 5-2 to Yale in ECAC Hockey action on Saturday night in New Haven, CT. With four games remaining in the regular season, the Golden Knights are positioned atop the conference standings, two points ahead of second-place Princeton.
Ranked 11th in the nation heading into the weekend in New England, Clarkson owns a 17-10-3 overall record. The Knights, who won at Brown, 4-3 in overtime on Friday, hold a 12-4-2 ECAC Hockey mark. Clarkson closes out the four-game road trip at Capital District rivals Union and Rensselaer this coming weekend. Friday’s game against the Dutchmen will be broadcast live by Time Warner Sports. The Green and Gold finish the regular season on February 29 – March 1, hosting Princeton and Quinnipiac at Cheel Arena.
For the second straight game, Clarkson overcame an early 2-0 deficit to tie the game, but unlike Friday’s win at Brown, the Knights could not capitalize on their chances late to pull out the victory. Clarkson saw a conference unbeaten streak come to an end at eight games (6-0-2), losing for the first time in league play since dropping a 3-1 decision at Dartmouth on January 11.
Yale (12-9-4, 8-6-4) jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead with goals by Matthew Thomey and Sean Backman 59 seconds apart before the game was five-minutes old.
Sophomore Matt Beca (Mississauga, ONT) gave the Knights life with his first goal of the game with just 26 seconds remaining in the first period. Freshman Lauri Tuohimaa (Helsinki, Finland) and senior Steve Zalewski (New Hartford, NY) assisted. For Zalewski, that was his 99th career point.
Beca struck again to tie the game with his eighth goal of the season at 7:40 of the middle frame with Tuohimaa picking up his second assist of the contest.
The Bulldogs, however, answered back in the third period with three straight goals to complete the weekend sweep. On Friday, Yale edged St. Lawrence 4-3.
Backman collected his second goal of the night for the game-winner at 12:26. Just over two minutes later Brendan Mason made it 4-2. An empty-net tally by Chris Cahill with 34 second remaining sealed the Bulldogs’ win, which snapped a six-game losing streak to the Green and Gold.
Clarkson struggled on the power play, failing to score in nine chances. Yale was 1-of-7 with the man advantage.
The Knights out shot the Bulldogs 38-28. Senior David Leggio (Williamsville, NY) finished with 23 saves, including 10 in the first period.
