College men's hockey: St. Lawrence posts first ECAC season sweep of Clarkson in 18 years
Jan. 29—POTSDAM — For the first time since the 2004-05 season, the St. Lawrence University men's hockey team has enjoyed a season sweep of its ECAC Hockey games with rival Clarkson.
The Saints (13-13 overall, 8-6-0 conference) defeated Clarkson 4-2 for a second straight night, this time before 3,433 fans at Cheel Arena on Saturday night.
"It's an important series," Saints coach Brent Brekke said. "We dug a little bit of a hole the last couple weeks, so to get back-to-back wins for points is huge coming down the stretch and good for confidence. It's a tough place to play. We haven't had as much success here as we have at home."
SLU started strong, scoring 2 minutes, 11 seconds into the game and building a 3-1 lead by the end of the first period.
Clarkson (11-12-3, 5-7-2) was in an early jam when Jacob Schmidt-Svejstrup was given a major penalty for a hit from behind just 24 seconds into the game. SLU's Josh Boyer was given a minor penalty for retaliating, cutting SLU's major to three minutes.
The Saints scored 12 seconds before the major began on a shot from Aleksi Peltonen at 2:11.
The major never hurt Clarkson as the Golden Knights tied the game 1-1 during it with a shorthanded goal from Ryan Richardson, who scored on a two-on-one breakaway with George Grannis at 3:23.
SLU regained the lead for good when Reilly Moran scored from beside the net at 10:32 of the opening period, taking advantage of a nice pass from Greg Lapointe.
The Saints upped the lead to 3-1 when captain Jordan Steinmetz scored three seconds after SLU killed a penalty on a quick wrist shot at 15:46 of the first period.
"We wanted to have a lead after the first period tonight," Brekke said. "I thought our guys did a good job."
Clarkson coach Casey Jones put Brady Parker in at goal, to replace Ethan Haider, at the start of the second period and he did not give up a goal the rest of the game.
The Golden Knights cut SLU's lead to 3-2 with a power-play goal from Mathieu Gosselin at 17:46 of the second period.
Clarkson picked up a chance to tie the game, or possibly go ahead, when SLU's Tim Makowski was given a major penalty for boarding with 6:10 left in the game.
With 1:55 left in the major, and 3:06 remaining in the game, Jones pulled Parker for an extra attacker, but Clarkson couldn't get a tying goal.
"I liked our team tonight," Jones said. "We were fighting a little bit, trying to get back into the game. I was happy with how Brady Parker came in and made a couple key saves. I didn't think we executed our power play and that was a difference in the game."
Said SLU defenseman Drake Burgin of the kill, "I feel like we did a good job at killing it off. It went the way we wanted too. I think all of us played hard and just battled it out. They were trying to get pucks through so our main goal was to get in front and try to get a piece of it, make sure they can't get pucks to the net."
Steinmetz ended the scoring with an empty-net goal, his second of the game, with 30.5 seconds left.
"It feels really good," Steinmetz said of the sweep. "It's the first time in my four years here. They are both sweet (arenas) to win in. We prepared well all week. I'm super proud of the guys in the locker room and I think we believed we could come out and do that. It showed what kind of guys we have in the locker room. We sacrifice and play for each other and do whatever it takes to get the job done."
