Playing for the first time in 18 days and without standout senior goaltender Paul Karpowich (Thunder Bay, ONT), who miss the trip south due to an illness, the Clarkson University Hockey team suffered a 6-1 loss to the University of Maine at Germain Arena in the opening round of the Florida College Classic in Estero, FL on Thursday afternoon.

The Golden Knights, who stand at 9-8-4 overall, will play Cornell in the tournament consolation game at 4:05 pm on Friday.

Audio Head Coach casey Jones Postgame

Clarkson came out rusty in the first period and could never recover after the opening 20 minutes, falling behind 3-0 in the stanza. Maine, which defeated the Knights earlier this season, 4-3 in Portland on November 26, jumped on top early in the Florida Classic. The Black Bears (7-7-2) opened the scoring with a power-play marker from Brian Flynn at 8:25. Ryan Hegarty followed at 10:51 and Spencer Abbott made 3-0 with 1:13 left in the period.

Maine added two more goals in the second frame with a score by Adam Shemansky at 7:30 and a shorthanded tally by Mark Anthoine at 10:09. The Black Bears built their lead to 6-0 with a power-play goal from Joey Diamond at 3:18 of the third.

Clarkson spoiled Maine’s shutout bid when senior Louke Oakley (Whitby, ONT) tipped in a shot by sophomore defenseman Alex Boak (Norwood, NY) at 9:36 for his eighth goal of the year. Freshman Joe Zarbo (Grand Island, NY) also assisted.

Audio Oakley Goal

The Black Bears outshot the Knights 36-19 and went 2-of-7 on the power play, while the Green and Gold were 0-of-7 with the man-advantage.

Sophomore Cody Rosen (Kingston, ONT), making his first appearance since a third-period showing at Union on January 8, got the starting nod in goal in place of the absent Karpowich. Rosen, in his second career start, made 15 saves on 19 shots through 27:30 of play. Senior Richie LaVeau (Arlington Heights, IL) came on in relief and posted 15 saves on 17 shots through the final 32:20 of the game.

Dan Sullivan turned aside 18 of Clarkson’s 19 shots.