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Three third-period goals gives Clarkson women's hockey 5-2 win

Posted 1/17/16

Recently, goals have been hard to come by when the Clarkson University Women's Hockey team matches up with the Harvard Crimson, but on Saturday afternoon the fifth-ranked Golden Knights lit up the …

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Three third-period goals gives Clarkson women's hockey 5-2 win

Posted

Recently, goals have been hard to come by when the Clarkson University Women's Hockey team matches up with the Harvard Crimson, but on Saturday afternoon the fifth-ranked Golden Knights lit up the scoreboard for five goals as they won 5-2 in Cheel Arena.

Winners of five straight, Clarkson is now 19-3-2 on the season and 7-3-2 in conference while Harvard, which entered the weekend ranked 8th/9th in the national polls, falls to 10-6-1 overall and 7-5-1in ECAC Hockey. With the win, Clarkson jumps over the Crimson and moves into third place in the conference standing.

"Today was a great win for us against a very good Harvard team. I was really proud of the way the team stuck with it after giving up a goal early and having to battle our way back on a couple occasions. I thought our penalty kill did a great job keeping Harvard off the board and were able to give our team a spark with some big shot blocks. You could really tell our players wanted the win with the way we came out in the third period. We knew how important those two points were in the league standings so it was great to see us finish the game the way we did."

It was Harvard who struck first. Just 2:42 into the game, Chelsea Ziadie took a shot and it was deflected to the other side of the goal where Lexie Laing was waiting to tap the puck in.

Clarkson answered less than five minutes later. The Green and Gold's first goal came from the same trio that had worked the game-winning goal the day before. Junior Genevieve Bannon trapped the puck behind the Harvard net and was able to tip it to senior captain Shannon MacAulay. MacAulay drifted left and slipped a pass to freshman Loren Gabel who finished the move with a wrist shot.

The Crimson scored once more to take a 2-1 lead after the first period. The goal came on an unlucky bounce as Grace Zarzecki's shot deflected off a Clarkson skate and into the goal.

The Golden Knights were able to tie the game at the 16:57 mark in the middle period. Sophomore Savannah Harmon lined up a shot from straightaway and freshman Rhyen McGill tipped it past Harvard's goaltender to tie the game at 2.

A two minute stretch early in the third period allowed Clarkson to finally separate from Harvard. First, at 6:36, McGill sent a pass from behind the net to the crease and junior Corie Jacobson's shot found the back of the net. At 8:10, the Golden Knights scored almost a carbon copy of Jacobson's goal. This time it was junior assistant captain Cayley Mercer passing the puck from behind the net and senior assistant captain Olivia Howe directing it into the goal. Clarkson added a third goal with 2:29 remaining. Senior assistant captain Renata Fast flipped a pass ahead to Bannon who flew down the right side of the ice and scored for the final margin of 5-2.

Clarkson held a 33-19 advantage in shots. Clarkson could not score on its three power-plays while killing off all four of Harvard's extra man opportunities. Sophomore goaltender Shea Tiley made 17 saves while Emerance Maschmeyer had 28 stops for the Crimson. The five goals for Clarkson are the most it has ever scored against Harvard.

Clarkson will look to stay undefeated in 2016 when it travels to Cornell and Colgate next weekend.