A pair of third-period goals by the Clarkson University Women’s Hockey team enabled the Golden Knights to overcome an upset bid by Quinnipiac University as the Green and Gold rallied for a 2-1 victory in ECAC Hockey action at Cheel Arena on Friday afternoon.
Clarkson, which is 9-0-1 at home this season, broke out of a two-game losing skid to improve its record to 13-4-1 overall and to 7-1 in ECAC Hockey. The Knights host Princeton on Saturday in a 2:00 pm game. The Clarkson-Princeton game will be broadcast over the internet by WQTK-FM.
Trailing 1-0 after 40 minutes, the Golden Knights’ offense was finally able to breakthrough a stingy defensive effort by the Bobcats (7-6-4, 4-2-3) to gain the two key points in league play.
Junior Melissa Waldie (Newmarket, ONT) started the Clarkson comeback at 2:29 of the third when she jammed in her own rebound during a scrum in front of the Quinnipiac net, tying the game with her ninth goal of the season. Waldie’s goal snapped a stretch of 178:02 of scoreless hockey for the Green and Gold.
At 8:47, senior defenseman Tegan Schroeder (Lumsden, SASK) put Clarkson on top with her second goal of the season. Senior Dominique Thibault (L’Original, ONT) sent a pass from the side of the Quinnipiac net back to Schroder at the point, where the veteran blueliner fired a shot through traffic past Bobcats’ goaltender Victoria Vigilanti for the game-winner. Senior defenseman Carlee Eusepi (Oakville, ONT) also assisted.
After a scoreless first period, Quinnipiac took the lead with a power-play marker from Heather Hughes at 7:05 of the middle frame. Just 18 seconds into its second man-advantage of the game, Hughes picked up a loose puck at the side of the Clarkson crease and lifted in a shot into an open net for her 10th goal of the year. Janine Duffy and Felica Vieweg assisted.
Clarkson out shot Quinnipiac 22-13. The Knights were 0-of-5 on the power play, while the Bobcats were 1-of-5 with the extra skater. Quinnipiac, the second least penalized team in the country, took a costly hooking penalty with less than two minutes play, which prevented the Bobcats from pulling their goaltender for the extra skater.
Junior Lauren Dahm (Baldwinsville, NY) posted 12 saves for the Knights. Vigilanti made 20 stops for Quinnipiac.
