With both teams coming away from three point losses on Friday night, there was plenty of thirst for a win from both the Clarkson Knights and the Colgate Raiders at Starr Rink on Saturday afternoon. Ultimately, neither team could prevail, and they settled for a 3-3 tie.
Early in the first, the Raiders dominated offensively, pinning Clarkson in their defensive zone.
Colgate drew first blood just 1:55 into the period with a power-play goal by Raider Austin Smith, who speedily streaked past Clarkson goalie Paul Karpowich to send the puck into an open back door.
Following the goal, Clarkson picked up its offensive play and generated chances. Clarkson tied the game on a power-play goal by Lauri Tuohimaa, who deflected in the shot past Colgate netminder Charles Long. The goal drew some controversy, as the officials reviewed whether Tuohimaa’s stick was above the crossbar, but the goal stood
Colgate did not have long to lament the call when just twenty seconds later forward Francois Brisebois deked past the Clarkson defense to rush the net and put in a goal off a wrist shot.
The Raiders’ drive to stay ahead stood in stark contrast to their 5-2 loss the night before, when St. Lawrence scored four unanswered goals against the Raiders in the second period.
“You’ll always get a response after a sluggish performance,” Colgate coach Don Vaughan said. “You have two teams who are kind of desperate for a win.”
The teams were unable to hold an edge over each other into the second, with Clarkson drawing even just twenty-five seconds into the period when Jake Morley stuffed in a rebound that caught Long off guard.
Colgate responded with a four-on-four goal from David McIntyre, who crashed the Clarkson net to snap in a pass given by Mark Anderson from behind the net.
After more than ten minutes of back and forth play, a top shelf slap shot from Knight Chris D’Alvise on a four-on-three Clarkson advantage brought the game to a tie for the third time.
“We’ve been behind in just about every game and haven’t been able to come back” Clarkson coach George Roll commented. “Tonight we were able to battle back.”
“We were physically beat up,” Roll noted. “Three of our top defensemen weren’t playing tonight, and neither was one of our top forwards.”
Clarkson does not play until December 19th, when they play a non-conference game at Bowling Green at 7:05 p.m.. Colgate goes on to play Maine on December 27th at 4:05 p.m.
