Clarkson and Rochester Institute of Technology continue to rake up the ties this season.
After playing to a 3-3 deadlock in a nonconference game Friday night, Clarkson now has five ties and RIT has three.
Clarkson jumped out to a 2-0 lead on first-period shorthanded goals only to see RIT fight its way back in front with three unanswered goals, which was quickly answered by Clarkson to end the scoring.
“Both teams played hard,” Clarkson coach Casey Jones said. “We had a short bench. I’m proud of our guys.”
“I thought it was a pretty good game,” RIT coach Wayne Wilson said. “They generated some good offense and chances. We’ll take the tie right now.”
The first shorthanded goal came at 6:27. Simon Bessette brought the puck down the left side on a two-on-one. Bessette used his teammate as a decoy, shooting it from the faceoff dot. Josh Watson appeared undecided as the puck easily slipped through his five-hole.
The Golden Knights got their second shorthanded goal of the first period at 17:16. Pat Megannety went straight down the middle on a breakaway. From the slot, he fired a wrist shot over Watson’s left shoulder for the 2-0 lead.
RIT got it right back soon after the power play ended as Ben Lynch stuffed in a rebound at the right post at 19:22.
The Tigers tied it up on their second power play of the game at 17:54 of the second period. After controlling the puck with lots of movement, Mike Colavecchia fired a slap shot from the right point through a screen beating Greg Lewis cleanly.
“The power play goal was big,” Wilson said.
Two successive backhanded shots gave RIT the lead at 4:39 in the third. Lynch’s initial backhander was stopped by Lewis, but he left a huge rebound. Brad McGowan came straight down the middle to backhand it past an out of position Lewis to make it 3-2.
“It’s part of the ebb and flow of the game,” Jones said. “I hate to give up leads, but we competed hard. We really responded well when they took the lead.”
Clarkson tied the game a minute later off a rebound. Zarbo whacked in a rebound from in close after Watson left a rebound off a Bessette shot.
RIT had a golden opportunity to win the game with five seconds left when Adam Hartley had a point-blank shot stopped by Lewis.
“I thought [Lewis] was good,” Jones said. “He made a really good save there in the third. He’s made key saves at key points of games.”
“We would have liked to have scored with five seconds there,” Wilson understated.
Clarkson outshot RIT 44-29. Both teams got three shots in overtime with some good opportunities to score.
Clarkson has now only lost once in its last eight games, while RIT has only one win in its last 11 games.
“It’s a long year,” Wilson said. “We’re not discouraged.”
