A 4-4 tie on the road at the 8th-ranked team in the country might have been cause for celebration for the Clarkson University Women’s Hockey team, but the Golden Knights had to settle for the draw after holding a 4-0 lead through the opening 40 minutes.
With the tie, Clarkson drops out of contention for a home-ice berth in the opening round of next weekend’s ECAC Hockey playoffs. The Golden Knights, who stand at 16-11-6 overall and 10-7-4 in the league, will finish either sixth or seventh in the conference standings. The Green and Gold close out the regular season on Saturday with a 4:00 p.m. game against ECAC Hockey front runner Harvard at Bright Hockey Center in Cambridge, MA.
Senior Marie-Jo Gaudet (Sherbrooke, QUE) opened the scoring at Dartmouth just 32 seconds after the opening faceoff. Sophomore Melissa Waldie (Newmarket, ONT) and junior Britney Selina (Thornhill, ONT) assisted. At 5:25, junior Genevieve Lavoie (Delson, QUE) gave the Knights a 2-0 lead with her seventh goal of the season and 97th career point. Freshman Juana Baribeau (Amos, QUE) assisted.
Clarkson continued to roll in the middle frame, adding two more goals. Gaudet tallied again for her team-high 20th goal of the season at 11:09 with senior Kimberly McKenney (Smiths Falls, ONT) assisting. Freshman Gabrielle Kosziwka (Limehouse, ONT) made it 4-0 for the Knights at 15:27 when she finished off a pass from Baribeau.
Dartmouth (16-7-4, 13-4-4), however, rallied over the final 20 minutes to gain a point in league play, keeping its chances for the ECAC Hockey regular season title alive. Just 1:29 in, Amanda Trunzo started the Big Green comeback. Kelly Foley connected for Dartmouth’s second goal at 9:00. A power-play tally by Jenna Cunningham at 13:18 made it a one-goal game. Foley struck for her second of the game, another power-play marker, at 17:28 to tie it.
Dartmouth out shot the Knights 14-7 in the third and 6-2 in the five-minute overtime session to hold a 38-34 shot advantage for the game. Sophomore Lauren Dahm (Baldwinsville, NY) posted 34 saves for Clarkson.
The Knights went 0-of-3 on the power play, while Dartmouth scored twice in four man-advantage opportunities.
