It was a special teams’ affair in game two between Clarkson and Rensselaer, but the Golden Knights emerged victorious, winning 4-2. Clarkson moves on to face Cornell in the ECAC quarterfinals. Both Riley Bourbonnais for RPI and Troy Josephs for Clarkson had two power-play goals.
Josephs got the scoring started as the beneficiary of a fluky play. Chase Perry made the initial save on a shot from Kelly Summers, but Josephs was able to work the puck through Perry, who then kicked the puck into the net while he was trying locate it in the crease.
Bourbonnais tied the game for RPI late in the first period on a power play, deflecting a shot from the boards past Jake Kielly with 5:20 left in the opening frame, but before the Engineers could get the intermission tied, Josephs struck again.
This time, Josephs’ goal was cleaner, as he deflected a shot from Kelly Summers in the low slot to beat Perry with 80 seconds on the clock in the first period.
“The last couple of games we’ve all been contributing, we’ve all been looking for each other and looking for good outlets from behind the net,” said Josephs of the Golden Knights’ power play, which went 6-for-10 in the sweep of RPI. “It’s been good that it’s working at the right time, in the playoffs, and we’re just looking to keep that going next week.”
James De Haas notched a power-play goal of his own with a shot from the high slot just past the midpoint of the second period, but Bourbonnais responded with a tally of his own with the extra attacker to draw RPI within a goal to start the third. Bourbonnais’ tally, his 17th of the season, came with only 6.9 seconds on the clock, and was the fifth straight power-play goal of the game, and the Engineers’ fifth power-play goal of the series.
Rensselaer outshot the Golden Knights in the third 10-8, but Kielly held firm in net until Nic Pierog scored an empty-net goal to relieve the pressure and ice the win.
After the win, Clarkson coach Casey Jones praised his team’s more complete effort, as well as two huge penalty kills in the third period, a part of the game Clarkson had been struggling with to that point.
“We did say, talking in between period as coaches, that the first one to figure out their penalty kill was going to win the game,” Jones admitted. “So it was two good kills for us at the end. I don’t think we gave them much, so that was a big turning point for us in the third period.”
Rensselaer could not be reached after the game.
ECAC roundup
Quinnipiac 5, Brown 1
The Bobcats got goals from five different skaters en route to a 5-1 win, and a series sweep, of Brown. Sam Lafferty had the lone goal for the Bears. Tanner MacMaster had three points in the game for Quinnipiac.
Yale 3, Dartmouth 2
The Bulldogs advanced to the quarterfinals thanks to 44 saves from Sam Tucker and an overtime game-winner from Andrew Gaus. Mike Doherty had both goals in regulation for the Elis.
Princeton 4, Colgate 3
It took the Tigers 55 shots on net to find a game-winner, and it came off the stick of Max Veronneau 16:17 into the first overtime period. Princeton was only still playing because Eric Robinson tied the game 3-3 with just 0.9 seconds on the clock in the third period, preserving the Tigers’ playoff hopes. The teams will meet Sunday to decide the series.
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