Hanover, NH – The #7 Clarkson Golden Knights visited the Dartmouth Big Green on Friday night with two valuable ECAC points up for grabs. Dartmouth took the lead three times and Clarkson was able to tie it but only twice. Freshman Tyler Campbell‘s third goal of the season put the Big Green ahead for good with 2:42 left to play while senior goalie Adrian Clark made 28 saves as Dartmouth hung on for the 3-2 upset win in front of 2,021 at Thompson Arena.
The opening period was a scoreless, up and down, physical affair that had each team getting a chance on the power play. Dartmouth had the game’s first just 1:48 in when Devin Brousseau was called for Roughing. Clarkson’s chance came at 11:52 when Joey Matthews was sent off for Cross-Checking.
The Golden Knights threatened on their power play when Adam Tisdale beat Clark on a snapshot from the left circle but hit the post. Dartmouth outshot Clarkson 8-7 in the period while the face-off wins were seven apiece.
Dartmouth jumped out to the 1-0 lead when Collin Rutherford banged home his own rebound at 2:48. The unassisted goal was the junior forward’s second of the year.
Clarkson would answer just 1:29 later when Josh Dunne followed up his own chance and was able to squeeze a shot between Clark and the post tying the game 1-1 at 4:17. Dunne crashed the net on a Haralds Egle wrist shot from the top of the circle, fired a shot that Clark saved but grabbed the rebound and managed to notch his first goal in 10 games. It was Dunne’s eighth goal of the year.
Dartmouth had nearly a minute and a half of a five on three power play after Interference was called on Clarkson’s Jordan Schneider at 6:03 followed by Tripping on Shane Kuzmeski at 6:29. Despite three shots on Frank Marotte (15 saves overall) in the Clarkson goal, the Big Green were unable to capitalize on the two man advantage.
Big Green senior Will Graber made it 2-1 with his 80th career point on a wrist shot from the slot at 11:32. The 6′-5″ forward has been getting time on the Dartmouth blue line as he works his way back from injury. His fifth goal of the season, assisted by Matt Baker and Campbell, came as he trailed the play as a defenseman. Sophomore Eric Urbank’s forecheck in the Golden Knights’ zone led to the Big Green tally.
Shortly after Dartmouth went ahead, Clarkson almost tied it as Jack Jacome had a bid at the side of the net that Clark managed to keep out of his goal while Dartmouth defenseman Brendan Less was called for Hooking on the play at 12:14.
Marotte and Clark traded saves as the second wound down. The period finished with both teams registering 17 shots on goal and Clarkson having the slight 17-15 edge at the face-off dot.
At 5:29 the Golden Knights freshman forward Mathieu Gosselin was sent off for Cross-Checking. Clarkson successfully killed off the Big Green power play only to have Gosselin have a scoring attempt turned aside by Clark after he exited the penalty box.
Clarkson peppered Clark in the third period putting 13 shots through to the Dartmouth goalie. Just before the halfway mark of the period Clarkson was unable to put a loose puck through a scrum in front of the Dartmouth net.
Off of the ensuing face-off, junior defenseman Connor McCarthy fired a wrist shot through traffic that beat Clark tying the game 2-2 at 10:23. McCarthy’s seventh goal if the year was assisted by Dustyn McFaul and Dunne.
Clarkson had a power play at 15:00 when Matt Baker was called for Boarding. Clarkson dinged the post at one point on the man advantage and Dartmouth defenseman Matthews had two blocks on slapshots from the Clarkson blue line. Each one stung the junior, but the second one really hurt the Columbia, IL native who fought through almost a minute of action while in pain.
The Big Green game-winning goal transpired off of a Clarkson turnover in the neutral zone after the Baker penalty. Campbell intercepted a pass in and carried into the Clarkson zone, dropped the puck back to Sam Hesler who dished across ice to Urbank for a one-timer at the top of the left circle that Marotte got a piece of but Campbell had crashed the net to bang home the rebound for the 3-2 Dartmouth lead at 17:18.
With Marotte pulled and the extra attacker in the Dartmouth zone Clarkson threatened to tie the game with less than a minute to go, but Clark was solid. The Golden Knights used their timeout with nineteen seconds left and a face-off to Clark’s right. One again a scrum ensued in the crease and the puck managed to not get across the Dartmouth goal line. A Cross-Checking call on Clarkson’s Dunne at 19:57 ensured that Dartmouth would prevail for the win.
The win put the Big Green’s record at 6-3-1 to remain in seventh place in ECAC play, while the loss for Clarkson dropped their record to 9-3, still good for first place in the conference.
“I thought our first forty minutes was really,really sloppy,” said Clarkson coach Casey Jones. “Unprepared to play, pure and simple. They had good pressure.”
“I thought tonight we just came out mentally unprepared to play,” added Jones. “You’re not going to win a game if you play 10 good minutes.”
“It was a really good college hockey game,” said Dartmouth coach Bob Gaudet. “A good ‘W’ for us.”
“We had some huge blocks,” said Gaudet. “When the guys sacrifice for each other it’s just great. We had a few nice blocks. There’s a lot of guys with ice packs right now. It’s a hard game and we paid the price tonight.”
Clarkson continues their road trip on Saturday as they travel to Cambridge to take on the Harvard Crimson at 7:00 pm EST. Dartmouth hosts St. Lawrence on Saturday night at 7:00 pm as well.
