Junior right wing Scott Polaski scored with 2:07 left to play in the third period to cap off a three-goal comeback for 10th-ranked Colorado College as the visiting Tigers defeated Clarkson, 3-2, before 2,475 fans in non-conference action at Cheel Arena Friday night.
Colorado College overcame a 2-0 deficit midway through the second period to improve its record to 3-0. Clarkson lost for the first time this season, falling to 1-1-1. Polaski netted his second goal of the season scoring on a breakaway after taking a long pass from freshman Scott Thauwald.
Sophomore Joey Crabb started the Tigers’ comeback scoring a power-play goal with 23 seconds left in the second period, which snapped Clarkson’s penalty-kill streak at 17. CC tied the game at 7:17 of the third period on senior defenseman Andrew Canzanello’s second goal of the season.
In a penalty-filled first period, Clarkson took advantage of its man-advantage opportunities to grab a 1-0 lead. Freshman defenseman Matt Nickerson put the Knights on top when he one-timed a pass at the left circle from classmate Max Kolu for his first collegiate goal, a power-play marker at 10:33.
Clarkson made it 2-0 midway through the second period when junior Chris Blight slipped in a shot just under the glove hand of Tigers’ freshman goaltender Matt Zaba at 11:45.
Colorado College outshot Clarkson 32-26. Sophomore Dustin Traylen posted 29 saves. Zaba finished with 24 stops. The Tigers were 1-of-9 on the power play, while the Knights were 1-of-6 with the man-advantage.
Clarkson and Colorado College will close out their weekend series at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.
“You know we’ve got a young team and we don’t play alot of games on the NHL-sized sheet and it took us a while to get going,” said CC head coach Scott Owens. “But I also thought they were pretty good early, until we got our feet under us. I was just glad we were able to score that goal at the end of the second period. It kind of kept us in there and kind of kept our interest.”
“It was right there for us, but we’ll learn and we’ll grow from it,” said Clarkson head coach George Roll. “I think we caught them a little bit by surprise. I didn’t think they thought the effort would be there and I give our guys credit. They competed hard for 60 minutes.
“It’s some little things that we’ve got to correct, but certainly we were there with one of the better teams in the country. It’s a little bit of a moral victory but when you’ve got a chance to win a game like that it is disappointing, I’m not going to lie to you.”
