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Styner strikes twice as Knights women's hockey tie Tigers 2-2

Posted 2/9/14

Potsdam, NY – Senior Brittany Styner (Calgary, ALB) added two more goals to complete her impressive weekend as the 3rd-ranked Clarkson University Women's Hockey team tied Princeton University 2-2 …

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Styner strikes twice as Knights women's hockey tie Tigers 2-2

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Potsdam, NY – Senior Brittany Styner (Calgary, ALB) added two more goals to complete her impressive weekend as the 3rd-ranked Clarkson University Women's Hockey team tied Princeton University 2-2 on Saturday afternoon at Cheel Arena.

The Golden Knights are now 21-4-5 (12-2-4 ECAC Hockey) while the Tigers are 12-9-4 (8-7-3). Clarkson is now undefeated in 12 straight games (9-0-3), the second longest active streak in the country. The Knights fall to third place in the conference, one point behind Cornell and two points behind idle Harvard with four conference games remaining. The two teams will square off next Friday night in Cambridge.

"Again I thought we did some good things, but I'm disappointed with the results after holding the lead entering the third period," stated co-head coach Matt Desrosiers. "We had our chances to put them away earlier in the game but didn't. This time of year when teams are battling for playoff positions you can't let them hang around in games. We definitely got exposed in a couple areas this weekend that we will look to clean up this week in practice. We have another good test next weekend when we travel to Harvard and Dartmouth so we will have to bounce back starting with a good week of practice."

Clarkson pressured the Princeton net from the start, as senior Jamie Lee Rattray (Kanata, ONT) fired a shot that hit the post just 30 seconds into the game.

The Knights were the first team with a power-play opportunity on the afternoon midway through the first period, and although they controlled the puck in the Princeton zone for nearly the entire two minutes, they could not find the back of the net.

Princeton would take a turn with the man-advantage, but the Knights stopped two early attempts and then controlled the puck for most of the penalty. With 18 seconds remaining in the power-play, the Knights committed another penalty to give the Tigers a 5-on-3. The Knights killed the first penalty, and 50 seconds of the second penalty before committing a third penalty. The Tigers would have another 5-on-3 chance for 50 seconds, but the Knights' defense and senior goaltender Erica Howe (Ottawa, ONT) held strong and killed off both penalties to finally return to even strength. In all, the Knights were down at least one skater for nearly five fill minutes.

To continue the penalty trend, the Tigers would then commit a holding penalty. Just 42 seconds into that power-play, Princeton would commit an elbowing penalty to give the Knights 1:18 of 5-on-3 play. Clarkson had two shots that deflected off the post but could not capitalize and Princeton killed off both penalties to return to even strength.

The Knights scored first at the 5:34 mark of the second period as Rattray took the puck from a Princeton defender in the neutral zone and skated up the left wing into the Tigers' zone. Styner cut toward the net from the right wing and Rattray found her with a pass by the lone defender and finished the play for her 11th goal on the year to give the Knights a 1-0 lead.

Styner was immediately thrown to the ice by a Princeton defender and senior Vanessa Gagnon (St. Constant, QUE) came to her aid and received a 5-minute major penalty for hitting from behind and a 10-minute game misconduct resulting in her afternoon ending early.

In the ensuing two minutes of 4-on-4 action the Knights would score again as sophomore Erin Ambrose (Keswick, ONT) controlled the puck in the Clarkson zone. She passed ahead to Rattray in the Princeton zone and she found Styner with a pass in front of the net. Styner buried a shot in the back of the net to put the Knights up 2-0. The Knights would then kill off the remaining three minutes of the major penalty to keep the Tigers off the board.

Princeton's best scoring chance came at the 15:30 mark as the Tigers has a 2-on-1 opportunity, but the shot hit the crossbar and deflected over the net to keep the Tigers scoreless.

The Knights dominated the second period, outshooting the Tigers 16-4 for a two period total of 25-11.

Howe made two big saves early in the third period, one with the blocked and another off a rebound that the Tigers could not finish.

Down at the other end, sophomore Shannon MacAulay (Mt. Herbert, PEI) took a shot from point-blank range, but Princeton goaltender Kimberly Newell made a glove save to keep the Knights' lead at 2-0.

Princeton would cut the Clarkson lead in half at the 6:30 mark as Gabie Figueroa brought the puck into the Clarkson zone. She passed to Brianna Leahy who found Kelsey Koelzer in front of the net. Koelzer would beat Howe to make the score 2-1.

The Tigers would score again as the Knights could not clear the puck out of their own zone. Fiona McKenna took the puck in the Clarkson zone and took a shot that bounced over Ambrose's stick and by Howe to knot the game at 2-2.

MacAulay led a charge toward the Princeton net through the defense but her shot ended up in the body of Newell. On the play, however, Princeton committed a slashing penalty to out the Knights on a power-play with under four minutes to play.

The Tigers would kill the penalty and survive one final rush from Rattray to force overtime.

A tripping penalty put the Tigers on a power-play at the 2:20 mark of overtime, but it was the Knights who had a scoring chance as sophomore Olivia Howe (Moose Jaw, SASK) brought the puck into the Princeton zone and left a pass in front for senior captain Carly Mercer (Exeter, ONT) but her shot was saved.

The Tigers would then commit a penalty at the 3:37 mark, making for a 4-on-4 situation. The Knights killed the rest of their power-play and had a man-advantage for the remainder of the period, but the game would end in a tie.

Clarkson outshot Princeton 43-26 on the afternoon, and Howe stopped 24 shots. Both teams were a combined 0-12 on the power-play.