Saints Can't Find Back of Net Versus Clarkson

Boxscore

POTSDAM, NY - St. Lawrence hockey team bounced back from a tough start against arch-rival Clarkson in game four of a four game series between the two North Country rivals Saturday night, but will be seeing missed chances in their sleep after the Golden Knights held off the Saints for a 3-1 win at Cheel Arena.

The Saints, who had a four-game unbeaten streak against the Knights snapped, fall to 14-11-3 overall and 6-7-3 in the ECAC while the Knights, who have won four of the last five games played between the two teams in Potsdam, improve to 8-14-3 overall and 6-7-3 in league play.

It was a frustrating evening for the Saint offense, which recovered from a 16-4 shot deficit in the first period, but just couldn't get the puck past Clarkson goalie Paul Karpowich despite some glittering opportunities. St. Lawrence outshot Clarkson 13-3 in the third period, but had a pair of shots clang off the post and at least four rebounds roll just wide of the open side of the cage.

"It was one of those nights where we just couldn't buy one," said Saint coach Joe Marsh. "They really took it to us in the first period, but I thought we did a reasonable job of righting the ship. The guys did a good job of working their way back into it, but Clarkson also did an excellent job of getting sticks on shots and disrupting things defensively."

Saturday's first period was almost a carbon copy of the opening period at Appleton on Friday as the home team came out flying, grabbed a 2-0 lead and had a large edge in shots on goal. Clarkson outshot the Saints 16-4 in the first 20 minutes on Saturday and took their 2-0 lead on goals just under two minutes apart.

Chris D'Alvise got the first as he picked up a rebound right in front of the Saint cage and worked the puck around the outstretched stick of Saint goalie Alex Petizian who was trying to poke check the puck out of harm's way. That goal came at 4:42 and it went to 2-0 at 6:33 as Nick Tremblay picked up a rebound at the side of the net after Petizian stopped Bryan Rufenach's wrap-around try and Tremblay snuck the puck between Petizian's pad and the post for his third of the year.

Petizian made a couple of big saves to prevent further damage and the Saint penalty kill came up big on two Clarkson power plays to get out of the first period down 2-0.

The second period belonged to the goaltenders as Karpowich came up with two huge saves among his nine in the period and Petizian kept it a 2-0 game with a great save on Scott Freeman's shorthanded bid with 1:10 to play. Karpowich made a lunging save to rob Brock McBride off a nice setup in front with just over six minutes gone in the period and then stopped Mike McKenzie's point blank bid on a power play with a little over two minutes to play.

The Saints turned the pressure on in the third period and had a chance to cut the lead in half as McKenzie missed just wide on the first rush of the third period. Jared Ross then rang a shot off the post on a power play and Kevin DeVergilio rolled the rebound just past the post. Clarkson turned the pressure back and made it a 3-0 game at 11:43 when Brandon DeFazio sprung Scott Freeman for a breakaway and Freeman scored his third of the year.

The Saints finally hit the scoreboard on their eighth power play chance of the night, scoring just one second after a five-on-three power play had lapsed. McBride scored the goal, his ninth of the year and his 98th career point as he picked up a rebound and tucked it behind Karpowich with Kevin DeVergilio and Zach Miskovic assisting at 14:27 to make it a 3-1 game.

SLU pulled Petizian for an extra attacker with 1:36 to go and while they got some zone time, a late penalty after a skirmish in the Clarkson end killed the advantage and Clarkson was able to run out the clock.

Karpowich finished with 26 saves for Clarkson while Petizian had 27 for the Saints.