Sophomore assistant captain Nick Dodge tallied a shorthanded goal and added an assist to help lead Clarkson to a 4-3 victory over Quinnipiac in ECAC Hockey League action before 2,420 fans at Cheel Arena Saturday night. The Golden Knights, who won their third straight, improved their record to 8-3-1 and to 4-1-1 in the ECACHL. The Bobcats, who dropped their fourth straight game, fall to 8-6-0 and to 2-4-0 in the conference.
Clarkson, which was coming off a 4-3 overtime win against Princeton the night before, jumped out to a 2-0 lead against Quinnipiac. The Knights started out a dominating first-period effort by scoring just 1:45 after the opening faceoff. Junior Brodie Rutherglen took a pass out of the corner from senior Jeff Genovy and slipped a shot past Quinnipiac freshman goaltender Bud Fisher for his second goal of the weekend and third of the season. Freshman Chris D’Alvise also assisted on the goal. At 15:40, sophomore David Cayer nudged a shot by Dodge over the goal line for his fifth goal of the season. Sophomore defenseman Grant Clitsome recorded an assist.
Quinnipiac evened things out in the second period, scoring twice while out shooting the Knights, 13-4. Just 21 seconds into the middle frame, freshman David Marshall scored his team-high 11th goal of the season on a shot from the left side of the net after linemates Mark Agnew and Chris Myer won control of the puck behind the Clarkson goal. At 11:59, freshman Chris Walsh made it 2-2 when he knocked in a shot from the slot off a big rebound from senior Ty Deinema’s shot. Senior Peter Alden also assisted.
A pair of special-teams goals 2:28 apart early in the third put the Knights on top, 4-2. While killing a penalty Dodge picked up an errant Quinnipiac pass along the left boards and skated in alone on the Bobcats goal where he knocked in his own rebound for Clarkson’s first shorthanded goal of the season and his sixth goal of the year at 5:48. Junior Mike Sullivan made it 4-2 when he took a pass from Genovy at the top of the crease, faked a shot and then slid in his fifth goal of the season, a power-play marker at 8:16.
The Bobcats pulled to within one on Walsh’s second goal of the game after he picked up a loose puck during a scramble in front of the net at 10:55. Quinnipiac pulled freshman goaltender Wes Russell with 55 seconds left in the game, but could not come up with equalizer. Dodge helped to hold off the Bobcats in the closing seconds by winning two defensive-zone faceoffs.
Quinnipiac out shot the Knights, 29-26, including a 25-14 shot advantage over the final 40 minutes. Junior Kyle McNulty made 26 saves for Clarkson to improve his record to 5-1-0. Russell, who came in at the start of the second period, took the loss, finishing with 12 saves on 14 shots. Fisher posted 10 first-period saves.
