Senior left wing Jeff Genovy recorded his first career multiple-goal game with two scores, and sophomore goaltender David Leggio came up with another strong effort to lead Clarkson University to a 3-2 victory over Yale University before 2,326 fans in ECACHL action at Cheel Arena Friday night.
The Golden Knights, who extended their unbeaten streak to three games (2-0-1), improved their record to 15-13-3 overall and to 8-9-2 in the league. The Bulldogs, who saw their winless skid in conference play reach six games (0-5-1), fall to 8-15-3 overall and to 6-11-2 in the ECACHL.
Clarkson opened the scoring at 5:56 of the first when Genovy snapped off a shot from the left circle just under the crossbar for his ninth goal of the season. Linemates freshman Chris D’Alvise and junior Brodie Rutherglen assisted. Yale came back to tie it on sophomore Matt Thomey’s third goal of the year at 11:15. Juniors Robert Burns and Brad Mills assisted.
Thomey opened the second period when he took a pass from junior defenseman Bill LeClerc and drove a shot from the right circle through the pads of Leggio, giving the Bulldogs their only lead of the game on his second goal of the contest at 2:42. The Knights came back with a pair of goals just under four minutes apart to regain the advantage midway through the stanza.
At 6:27, 19 seconds after Clarkson killed off Yale’s first power play of the game, the Knights tied it up as Genovy knocked in a rebound off junior defenseman Michael Grenzy’s shot from in close for his second goal. D’Alvise recorded his second assist of the game and 15th of the season. Freshman Shea Guthrie put the Green and Gold on top with an unassisted goal at 10:22 on a slap shot from the top of the right circle for his eighth goal of the year.
Leggio, who has gone 3-1-1 over his last five starts, made 29 saves and was especially strong over the final 20 minutes with 11 stops. With just over five minute to play, the Bulldogs had a flurry of chances at the top of the crease, but Leggio kept consecutive shots by freshman David Meckler, senior Jeff Hristovski and sophomore Jean-Francois Boucher out of the net. Yale had another excellent opportunity to force a tie with its fourth power play with 68 seconds to play. The Bulldogs pulled freshman goaltender Alec Richards for a six-on-four advantage but could not come up with the equalizer. With 15 seconds remaining, the game was delayed for about 15 minutes after a pane of glass was broken in the Clarkson end.
Both teams were 0-4 on the power play. Yale outshot the Knights 31-29. Richards finished with 26 stops for the Bulldogs.
