The Clarkson Golden Knights struck twice in the second period and never looked back, defeating the Quinnipiac Bobcats 4-2 Friday night.
“Frustrating effort on our part tonight,” Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said after the game. “I don’t want to take anything away from Clarkson. I think Clarkson was really good, they played a really good road game.”
The momentum on the ice at the High Point Solutions Arena changed early in the second period when Clarkson’s A.J. Fossen struck Chase Priskie from behind against the boards, resulting in a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct. The Bobcats, tied at one, looked to take advantage of the man-advantage and take back the lead. However, the puck did not find the back of the net during the power play.
Clarkson would later score in the middle period, taking the lead 2-1.
“I think it was that five-minute power play,” Chase Priskie said when asked what the biggest difference in the game was. “ When we get the five-minute power play and we don’t capitalize, it’s a big momentum swing when a team can kill five whole minutes and that’s what they did.”
The Clarkson go-ahead goal came with just 30 seconds remaining in the second period when a Quinnipiac turnover was corralled by Aaron Thow, who then skated around the goal to the right of Shortridge and found Greg Moro waiting at the point.
Thow passed it Moro, who quickly found the back of the net to give Clarkson the 2-1 lead.
Clarkson pushed its lead to two early in the third when Haralds Egle gathered a puck that was corralled around the boards. Egle passed it to linemate Sam Vigneault, whose shot rang off the post, catching Shortridge out of position when the puck found itself on Jame De Haas’ stick. De Haas scored on the open net, giving Clarkson the two goal lead.
Before Clarkson led 2-1, it was Quinnipiac who jumped out to an early lead when Tim Clifton won a face-off back to Chase Priskie. Priskie, who struck for two goals against Yale in his last game, rifled a slapshot past Clarkson’s goaltender Jake Kielly giving Quinnipiac the 1-0 lead just a little more than three minutes into the opening period.
“This year I have been just doing a better job of getting pucks on net and they have been finding the back of the net,” Priskie said.
Priskie’s goal was his fifth goal in the past five games, pushing him out in front of every other Eastern College Athletic Conference defenseman in points (12) and goals (6) since the holiday break.
Clarkson responded early in the second period when Aaron Thow gathered a loose puck at the point and put one past Quinnipiac goalie Andrew Shortridge to tie that game a goal apiece.
Trailing 3-1 in the third, the Bobcats pulled themselves within a goal when a giant scrum in front of the net caught Kielly out of position.
Quinnipiac rifled four shots on the net during the scrum, each finding a Clarkson body until Kevin Mckernan gained possession of the puck, scoring over the shoulder of Kielly to cut the lead to one with a little less than eight minutes remaining in the game.
However, the Bobcats come back efforts came up short when Shortridge exited the crease, giving Quinnipiac an extra skater.
The Bobcats mustered up a multitude of chances in the final 120 seconds of play, but an empty-net goal by Vigneault iced the game for the Golden Knights, solidifying their 4-2 victory.
Quinnipiac will return to action next week when they travel to New York to face ECAC foes RPI and Union.
