Sophomore assistant captain Nick Dodge (Oakville, ONT) tallied a shorthanded goal, added an assist and won several key faceoffs to help lead Clarkson University to a 4-3 victory over Quinnipiac University 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 and to 2-4 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 (Trail, BC) took a pass out of the corner from senior Jeff Genovy (Kalamazoo, MI) and slipped a shot past Quinnipiac goaltender Bud Fisher for his second goal of the weekend and third of the season. Freshman Chris D’Alvise (Mississauga, ONT) also assisted. At 15:40, sophomore David Cayer (Lonqueuil, QUE) nudged a shot by Dodge over the goal line for his fifth goal of the season. Sophomore defenseman Grant Clitsome (Gloucester, ONT) also 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, David Marshall scored his team-high 11th goal of the season on a shot from the left side of the net. At 11:59, Chris Walsh made it 2-2 when he knocked in a shot from the slot off a big rebound.
A pair of specialty 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 Bobcat 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 (Stouffville, ONT) made it 4-2 when he took a pass from Genovy at the top of the crease fake 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 at 10:55. Quinnipiac pulled goaltender Wes Russell with 55 seconds left to play, 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 by a 25-14 margin over the final 40 minutes. Junior Kyle McNulty (Wakefield, RI) made 26 saves for Clarkson to improve his record to 5-1. 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.
Clarkson closes out a four-game home stand next weekend hosting Harvard and Dartmouth.
