Potsdam, NY – Over the last few years, the Clarkson University Women's Hockey team has endured some struggles at home against Princeton University, with just one win in its last four tries at Cheel Arena, but the Golden Knights were able to rally from an early deficit to earn the season sweep of the Tigers with a 2-1 victory in front of 243 fans Friday night.

The Golden Knights improved to 20-8-3 overall and 14-3-2 in ECAC Hockey with the victory, marking the fourth straight season that the Green and Gold have achieved 20 victories in the regular season. Princeton saw its chances of earning a top-four spot in the ECAC, and a home ice opportunity in the playoffs, take a hit with the defeat, falling to 13-11-2 overall and 11-7-1 in conference play.

It didn't take long for Princeton to get on the scoreboard, getting its offense going just a few seconds into the Clarkson zone. Jaimie McDonell found Ali Pankowski at the top of the left circle and the senior defender sent a pass through the slot to Molly Contini, who was able to use a quick move to drop Clarkson goaltender Shea Tiley down to the ice. Contini then slipped the puck past the sprawled Tiley to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead just 3:20 into the game.

Clarkson would dominate the period according to the shot chart with a 14-3 edge, but it wasn't until late in the period that the Knights would be able to tie the game. Shortly after a slashing penalty was called on Princeton's Kiersten Falck, Clarkson's Cayley Mercer and Genevieve Bannon passed the puck around the blue line to get some space and Bannon slipped a pass over to Savannah Harmon. From there, the freshman took one step into the right circle and wristed a shot over the stickside shoulder of Princeton goaltender Kimberly Newell, knotting the game up 1-1 at the 16:59 mark in the first period.

In the second period, the Knights again dominated on shots, holding a 16-5 edge the period, but nothing came from that offensive outburst. Clarkson held the puck in the Princeton end for much of the final two minutes of the period, getting a few decent looks, but none of the attempts on the Tigers' net could get past Newell.

Early on in the third period, Clarkson scored a key goal on a broken play. With the puck deep in their defensive zone, the Knights were able to chip the puck out to near center ice where Olivia Howe was able to poke it away from two converging Princeton players near the Tigers' bench. The pass had enough on it to find Cayley Mercer in the open ice by herself, and the junior left wing put one move on Newell and lifted a backhand around her glove at the 6:29 mark to give Clarkson a 2-1 lead.

Princeton had a chance in the final minute of the game once they pulled their goalie for an extra-attacker and it appeared as if the Tigers might send the game into overtime. With calamity in front of the net, Tiley was on the ground and the puck was on the other side of the net with a Princeton skater ready to deposit the shot into the back of the net, but a whiff and a sliding of the puck removed the possibility and Clarkson spent the rest of the game trying to pick up an empty-net goal for insurance.

Shea Tiley concluded the game with 10 saves to earn the win, while Kimberly Newell was active in net for Princeton with 40 stops. Clarkson finished with an overwhelming 42-11 edge in shots, allowing five shots or fewer in each of the three periods and taking at least 12 in each frame. The Knights finished 1-for-4 on the power play while Princeton did not score in its one attempts with an extra skater.