CANTON, N.Y. — Historically, the St. Lawrence-Clarkson rivalry has gone the way of the Golden Knights.
But in the 200th all time meeting between the two squads Friday night, St. Lawrence took the win by a score of 3-0, the first time SLU has beaten its rival at home since 2010.
For Saints coach Greg Carvel, tonight was the first home win for him since he returned to SLU in a coaching capacity.
“It’s great to get the monkey off the back,” he smiled after the win.
The first period was scoreless, as the two strong defensive teams played to their strengths and both goaltenders made solid saves.
St. Lawrence broke the scoreless tie at 11:03 of the second period, when a seemingly harmless Gavin Bayreuther wrist shot made it all the way through traffic to Steve Perry, before sliding through the five hole.
With a slim lead in favor of St. Lawrence, the teams entered play in what would become a wild third period. Joe Sullivan put SLU up 2-0 early in the final period when he picked up a loose puck in the slot and flipped it over Perry’s shoulder.
Then, at the 6:27 mark, a pane of glass was broken to the left of the Clarkson bench, resulting in an eight-minute delay.
“We thought it might make them complacent, and we could capitalize,” said Golden Knights coach Casey Jones.
It was St. Lawrence who came out the better team after the delay, scoring their third and final goal to seal the win.
Close to 12 minutes into the period, Eric Sweetman fired a slap shot from the point past Perry, giving the Saints their three-goal lead.
A late power play for Clarkson was unsuccessful and they failed to score with the goalie pulled.
“I thought we generated enough chances to score two or three goals and we hit some pipes,” said Jones. “Ultimately, we have to score goals.”
“I think they executed their game plan better,” added Clarkson captain Paul Geiger. “We don’t have our whole team bought in right now and its pretty evident.”
The importance of the win was evident in the St. Lawrence locker room.
“You’re glad you won the rivalry game and then you realize you also got two league points,” said Carvel. “We played a really good team game and everybody bought in and everybody battled hard.”
Saints captain Brian Ward understood what made tonight’s game special.
“Its a really good win to get at home,” he said. “We haven’t beaten them here in quite some time.”
