In a battle between the top two teams in ECAC Hockey, overtime still could not separate the two teams as the fifth-ranked Clarkson University Women's Hockey team tied third-ranked St. Lawrence 3-3 on Thursday night in Cheel Arena.

Clarkson's record is now 13-3-3 while St. Lawrence is 15-0-2. Both teams are 8-0-1 in conference.

"Tonight was an exciting hockey game with two good teams going back and forth all night," stated Clarkson Head Coach Matt Desrosiers. "I thought we came out strong in the first period but gave some of that momentum back in the second. The third saw both teams get some chances, which made for an exciting ending to the game. I'm sure both teams can take a lot of positives from the game heading into Saturday."

St. Lawrence came into the game riding a five-game shutout streak and the Saints were able to extend that streak another period as the first period finished scoreless. Just 2:43 into the second though, Clarkson ended that run. The goal came in a 4-on-4 situation with co-captain Cayley Mercer finding fellow captain Savannah Harmon in space and Harmon wristed a shot in from the right circle.

It took the Saints just 22 seconds to answer as St. Lawrence pounced on the puck in the Clarkson defensive end and Kennedy Marchment was able to score. St. Lawrence took the lead at 8:07 when another Clarkson miscue in its own end allowed Justine Reyes to score from the left circle.

A Clarkson penalty with just four seconds in the second period put the Golden Knights on the defensive to start the third period. But as the St. Lawrence power-play was coming to a close, the Green and Gold broke out with assistant captain Genevieve Bannon stealing the puck at her own blue-line and taking it deep into St. Lawrence territory before sliding a pass into the path of an onrushing Mercer who scored.

Clarkson was level for just 34 seconds though. It was Marchment who regained the lead for St. Lawrence with her second goal of the game. Marchment gained position in front of the Clarkson goal and was able to get her stick on a shot by Brooke Webster and tip the puck into the net.

As the clock ticked down, the St. Lawrence lead held and it looked like the Saints might earn their first win in Cheel Arena since 2010. However, in the 3-3 tie between the two teams in October, St. Lawrence held an identical 3-2 lead and Clarkson was able to score with under 30 seconds left to tie the game. Nearly two months later, the Golden Knights repeated the feat. After pulling Shea Tiley for an extra attacker at 58:20, Clarkson pressed forward to tie the game. St. Lawrence was able to repel the initial effort and sent the puck down towards the Clarkson end. Harmon retreated to collect the puck and sent a pass to Ella Shelton who was streaking down the left side. Shelton crossed the blue line and then let loose a shot that caromed off the right pipe and into the goal in front of a euphoric Clarkson student section.

Heading into overtime, both teams struggled to score the game-winning goal and the sole spot in first that came with it. The best chance came with 1:14 remaining when Rhyen McGill slammed a shot off the right post of the St. Lawrence goal. However, when the final whistle blew, the teams remained deadlocked both on the scoreboard and in the standings.

Clarkson finished with a 25-16 edge in shots. Clarkson was 0-4 on power-plays while St. Lawrence was 0-2 on extra man opportunities. Tiley finished with 13 saves for Clarkson while Grace Harrison made 22 stops for the Saints.

The two teams will meet again at 3:00 pm on Saturday afternoon in Appleton Arena in Canton.