Saints Battle Back, but Clarkson Prevails
St. Lawrence University's hockey team finally found a way to get
some pucks behind Clarkson senior goaltender Paul Karpowich, but
three weren't enough on Tuesday night as the Golden Knights snapped
a tie with a late goal and added an empty-netter to hand the Saints
their fourth straight loss, 5-3 in the first of two meetings this
week between the North Country rivals.
Sophomore Matt Zarbo snapped a 3-3 tie with a goal with 3:04 to go
in regulation for the game winner and classmate Will Frederick
scored his second of the game into an empty net with 7.7 seconds
left as Clarkson won for the fourth straight time in the series
between the two rivals. The two teams will play a non-league game
at Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid on Saturday at 7:30.
The Golden Knights, 9-6-4 overall and 3-4-2 in the ECAC, jumped out
to 2-0 and 3-1 leads, but the Saints, 5-10-0, 4-5-0, battled back
to tie with a pair of third period goals to tie the game. Freshman
Joe Zarbo picked up a loose puck near the Saint blue line and fed
his older brother for the game winner at 16:56 before Frederick
scored an empty net power play goal to wrap things up.
"The guys battled back after falling into an early hole," said
Saint associate head coach Mike Hurlbut. "I thought we started
playing better midway through the first and played a solid second
period. We went with shorter and quicker shifts in the third and
tied it up, but Clarkson took advantage of a mistake on our part to
win it.
"We had our chances with some open looks, but didn't finish them
off, and it was obvious that we missed Kyle Flanagan and George
Hughes on the power play," Hurlbut added after the Saints went
scoreless in five tries with the extra man.
Clarkson scored on the first shot on goal of the game as Joe Zarbo
was all alone in front of Saint goalie Matt Weninger and brother
Matt found him with a pass from behind the net. The goal, which
came at 56 seconds, was Joe Zarbo's third of the season. The
Knights made it a 2-0 game at 10:21, again taking advantage of a
Saint defensive mistake in front of Weninger. Corey Tamblyn fed
sophomore Will Frederick, who came down the middle and tucked the
puck behind Weninger for his first of the season.
The Saints battled back into it with a strong second period effort,
cutting the Golden Knight lead to 2-1 just 1:17 in as freshman
Chris Martin scored his fifth of the season on a wraparound as he
tucked the puck inside the left post. While the Saints had some
great chances to tie and outshot the Knights 15-9 in the period,
Clarkson quieted the crowd and regained its two goal lead at 11:10
when the Saints were caught in a change and while Weninger stopped
Frederick's point-blank bid, Tamblyn was there to put away the
rebound for his sixth of the year.
St. Lawrence cut the Clarkson lead to 3-2 at 5:35 of the third when
junior defenseman Jordan Dewey pinched in and picked up a rebound
of a shot by Gunnar Hughes in the Clarkson goal mouth and put the
puck back past Karpowich, who surrendered more than one goal in a
game to the Saints for the first time in his last four starts in
the series. SLU tied the score when freshman defender Nelson
Armstrong got the puck to senior forward Mark Armstrong and Mark
Armstrong worked his way through traffic, putting a shot inside the
far post at 11:45 to make it a 3-3 game.
The Saints outshot Clarkson 31-28 with Karpowich making 14 of his
28 saves in the second period. Weninger had 23 saves for the
Saints, who dropped their fourth in a row after winning five of the
previous six.












