College women's hockey: Branton's overtime goal sparks Clarkson over St. Lawrence at Cheel Arena
Nov. 11—POTSDAM — Clarkson University's Gretchen Branton scored 2 minutes, 11 seconds into overtime and immediately turned to teammates Anne Cherkowski and Nicole Gosling and said, "Oh my God! I just scored!"
The sophomore's goal gave the Golden Knights a 5-4 win over rival St. Lawrence in a nonleague game at Cheel Arena on Thursday night.
But the goal didn't count immediately. SLU asked the officials to look to see if Clarkson had too many players on the ice. After a short review the goal stood and both teams, who had already shook hands, headed off the ice.
"I think my heart was racing hard enough I just kind of blacked out and don't remember," Branton said of the review.
It was the second win for Clarkson (11-3-1 overall) over the Saints this season. Clarkson beat SLU 3-1 in the championship game of the Icebreaker at Lake Placid.
Clarkson struck first Thursday with a goal from Olivia Hanson at 1:41 of the opening period.
The Saints (7-6) answered with a goal from Julia Gosling on a rebound of a shot from Anna Segedi at 11:24.
SLU then went on the power play and Gosling gave them a 2-1 lead at 13:46 of the first period.
Clarkson tied the game 2-2 at 5:33 of the second period on the ninth goal of the season from Darcie Lappan, who transferred from Colgate.
"It's intense, so far I've gotten two games in and both go all the way to the end of the game and can go either way," Lappan said of the Clarkson/SLU rivalry. "It's been a lot of fun, competitive, and it's what you want."
Clarkson took two quick penalties late in the second period and the Saints took advantage, taking a 3-2 lead on a goal from Chloe Puddifant at 19:57.
Clarkson still had to kill a second penalty at the start of the third period and did.
"It was little bit of an up-and-down game for us," Clarkson coach Matt Desrosiers said. "I didn't love our first period. I thought we came out well, but when they got their first goal it put us on our heels and I thought they outworked us the rest of the period.
"Second period we did a really good job, came out with a lot of energy and kind of outworked them. I was happy and proud with the way we came out in the third period there. That could have been a huge turning point. Us getting through that (penalty kill) helped turn the momentum in our favor."
Gabrielle David tied the game for Clarkson with a goal 3:02 into the third period and Nicole Gosling scored a power-play goal at 5:11 to give Clarkson a 4-3 advantage.
"It was a grind of a game, but that's what you expect when you play your rival school," Nicole Gosling said. "Going into the second and third we were down. Our mentality was to just grind it out. I was just happy to get us a lead, that was at least nice."
The Saints tied the game again at 15:04 of the third period on a shot from Abby Hustler.
The only shot in overtime was on Branton's winning goal.
"We've been in a couple exciting games here, scored six and five, in two of the last three games," Saints coach Chris Wells said. "Clarkson came out and took it to us in the first four or five minutes. I think we were able to execute. (Julia Gosling) scored us a couple goals. Our power play has been good all year. We had two or three really good chances to win it in regulation. (Clarkson goalie Michelle Pasiechnyk) made some great saves there toward the end of the game. Overtime is overtime. Everybody knows how I feel about the three-on-three overtime."
The rivals meet again in another nonconference game at 2 p.m. Saturday at Appleton Arena in Canton.
