It turned out to be a good weekend for both Clarkson and Union — for completely different reasons.
The Dutchmen, looking to forget about last week’s embarrassing loss to Holy Cross, skated to a 2-2 ECAC tie at Achilles Rink on Saturday against the Golden Knights, who have been trying to forget about the situation surrounding coach Mark Morris.
Morris was put on administrative leave by the school on Tuesday as it investigates an alleged incident at practice last Saturday. Clarkson junior right wing Zach Schwan, who was allegedly attacked by Morris, played against Union. He replaced Adam Campana, who hurt his shoulder Friday against Rensselaer, and played sparingly.
Both teams ended the weekend with three points. On Friday, Union (1-0-1 ECAC, 3-3-3 overall) beat St. Lawrence, while Clarkson (1-1-1, 1-3-1) edged RPI.
“You have to be happy anytime you get a win and a tie on the road,” Clarkson interim head coach Fred Parker said. “They’re exhausted right now. That showed tonight. We were pretty sloppy. Everything caught up to them.”
It was just the second time in Union’s 12-year Division I history that it taken three points in a weekend against the North Country teams. The previous time was Nov. 11-12, 1994, at Achilles, when the Dutchmen beat St. Lawrence and tied Clarkson.
“I’m real proud of the way our guys battled all weekend,” Union coach Kevin Sneddon said. “Obviously, we would like to have four points. I liked our team play this weekend. I thought we had contributions from four lines, not necessarily points, but four lines that we can count on, six defensemen and we got good goaltending from our two young goaltenders. I couldn’t be any more pleased.”
Still, the Dutchmen players aren’t pleased with a tie.
“We’re shooting for the win, no matter what,” said captain Nathan Gillies, who assisted on Chris DiStefano’s first-period goal that gave Union a 2-1 lead. “We’re not satisfied with ties. Maybe Union teams in the past, but not this team.”
The teams exchanged four-on-four goals midway through the first period. Kris Goodjohn scored for Union at 10:31, but Chris Blight tied it 28 seconds later.
Kevin O’Flaherty’s power-play goal with 5:08 left in the second period tied the score.
“Last weekend, there were a lot of questions about our attitude,” Goodjohn said. “We addressed that last week. All the boys knew that they had to shape up and concentrate on that. It’s a big part of the game. We did that this weekend, which showed on the ice.”
Ken Schott covers college hockey for The Daily Gazette in Schenectady, N.Y.
