The Clarkson women’s ice hockey team faced off against Colgate in the second game of the ECAC Hockey semifinals doubleheader at TD Bank Sports Center on Saturday.
The Golden Knights (29-3-5, 14-3-5 ECAC), powered by a strong special teams performance, eliminated the Raiders (22-9-7, 12-5-5 ECAC) by a score of 5-2.
Clarkson kicked off the scoring with a power-play goal, foreshadowing what would become a momentum builder throughout the game.
Senior captain Shannon MacAulay lined up at the top of the circle for a setup pass from fellow senior Erin Ambrose. MacAulay fired a rocket that deflected to dip under Colgate goaltender Ashlynne Rando’s glove, maintaining velocity.
Colgate would come back in a short spurt at the end of the first period. Entering the final two minutes of play in the first period, Colgate sophomores Megan Sullivan and Annika Zalewski scored 20 seconds apart to steal the lead.
Sullivan went in on a breakaway and put the puck up under the bar on Clarkson goaltender Shea Tiley’s glove side.
Zalewski chipped the puck down low and glided behind the play to the net. The puck was chipped out in front of the net and she roofed it on Tiley’s blocker side.
Colgate’s lead was short lived following the intermission break. Nicole Gass was called for holding putting the Golden Knights back on the power play. It took just 11 seconds for MacAulay to strike again.
Junior Cayley Mercer protected the puck and crept down low to the net and went for a wrap around but lost the handle.
But MacAulay was there and stuffed it home, beating Rando going post-to-post for her 99th career point and 17th power-play goal of her career.
MacAulay talked about the importance of special teams play in a single elimination tournament.
“I think it’s a huge thing this time of year,” MacAuley said. “The games are tight and special teams are huge. I think for us to get two goals on there, two PPs, was huge for us and just a confidence builder going into tomorrow.”
The Golden Knights would get two more power-play opportunities but fail to score on either.
However, the Raiders totaled 10 penalty minutes in the game. The final three penalties led to the tying goal and the last two squandered any opportunity to build momentum in the game.
With the penalties coming with four minutes left in the second and two minutes into the third, Clarkson maintained possession for the bulk of the time shortly after taking the lead.
Colgate head coach Greg Fargo discussed the frustrations of how tiring playing on the penalty kill can be.
“For us, to get down early and then we seemed to get into some penalty trouble, that really I think affected the game,” Fargo said. “I think the hard part was that we felt like we were in our end so much.”
Clarkson took the lead with a Jessica Gillham tip half way through the second period.
Josiane Pozzebon kept the puck in at the point and walked the blue line to the middle for a shooting lane. Pozzebon pulled the stick back knee high to get off a quick shot that tipped off Gilham’s stick at the top of the crease.
With the lead and momentum in their favor, Clarkson would ease through the third period capping on two more goals late to clinch their spot in the ECAC Championship game.
Clarkson will take on Quinnipiac Sunday at 2 p.m. Both teams are searching for their first ECAC Championship win.
