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Clarkson opens ECAC men's hockey play with 5-1 road win at Union

Posted 11/9/19

The Golden Knights started with a flourish and ended with a bang en route to winning their season-opening ECAC Hockey contest, downing Union 5-1 at Messa Rink in Schenectady, NY on Friday night. …

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Clarkson opens ECAC men's hockey play with 5-1 road win at Union

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The Golden Knights started with a flourish and ended with a bang en route to winning their season-opening ECAC Hockey contest, downing Union 5-1 at Messa Rink in Schenectady, NY on Friday night.

Winners of three straight, 8/9th-ranked Clarkson improves to 6-2-1 overall and takes 1-0-0 ECAC Hockey mark into Saturday's game at Rensselaer.

Five different Golden Knights scored goals in the balanced effort and Frank Marotte, the graduate transfer in the Clarkson crease, posted 19 saves.

Clarkson got off to a hot start when junior right wing Grant Cooper (Cornwall, ONT) scored on the third shift of the contest. Cooper was the beneficiary of a strong play by sophomore center Nick Campoli (Toronto, ONT) who took over a loose puck deep in the defensive zone, skated hard through center and drove the left wing in the Union end. After briefly losing the puck, Campoli got it back and found Cooper wide open between the faceoff circles for the his third goal of the season just 89 seconds into the game. Freshman defenseman Dustyn McFaul (Waterdown, ONT) also assisted.

Union would tie the game at 7:18 when Dylan Anhorn scored his first career goal.

Both teams had good chances and Clarkson had an advantage of offensive zone puck possession, but the opening stanza ended with the game tied at one.

Clarkson dominated the shots and scoring chances in the second period, but would not earn the lead until the last minute of the frame.

Senior defenseman Greg Moro (Edmonton, ALB) knocked down a clearing attempt at the right point and was able to get the puck through traffic and on to goal. Sophomore Chris Klack (Georgetown, ONT) was parked at the top of the crease and stuffed the rebound through the legs of the net-minder with 23 seconds remaining in the period to give Clarkson a 2-1 edge on his first goal of the season. Junior Zach Tsekos (Montreal, QUE) also set up the goal.

The Green and Gold would shut the door to any Union comeback early in the third period.

Junior Jack Jacome (Caledon, ONT) caused a Dutchmen turnover in behind the Union net and was able to get the puck to Moro in the right circle. Moro one-timed a shot on net and freshman Anthony Romano (Richmond Hill, ONT) collected the rebound and scored his fourth of the season at 1:38 for a 3-1 lead.

Jacome again set up another Clarkson tally. This one, he finished himself.

After gathering a puck off a faceoff at the top of the right circle, the junior left wing fought his way to the net only to be denied on a scoring chance. Then he won a race to the rebound in the left corner, moved out front to put two shots on net. The second one dented the twine at 17:26 and Clarkson was up 4-1. Tsekos picked up his second assist of the night.

The next shift freshman Mathieu Gosselin (Quebec City, QUE) rifled a shot past the Dutchmen netminder at 18:06 for his first career goal to make the final score 5-1. Sophomores Adam Tisdale (Cochrane, ALB) and defenseman Michael Underwood (Bloomfield Hills, MI) assisted.

The victory was the 48th in 53 contests that the Golden Knights scored a win when leading after two periods of play.

The Green and Gold outshot Union (2-9, 1-2) 32-20. Both teams were 0-of-2 on the power play.