Sophomore David Leggio posted 29 saves and Clarkson University received goals from three different players as the Golden Knights broke out of a four-game losing streak with a 3-2 victory over archrival St. Lawrence University in ECAC Hockey League action before 3,914 fans, the third-largest crowd ever at Cheel Arena, on Friday night.
Clarkson, which posted its first ECACHL win since November 25, improved its record to 13-10-2 overall and to 6-6-1 in the conference. Ranked 14th in the nation, St. Lawrence dropped its third consecutive game to fall to 14-10-1 overall and to 8-5-0 in the league. The Golden Knights and Saints close out their regular-season series with a 7:00 p.m. game at Appleton Arena in Canton, N.Y., tomorrow night.
Clarkson’s leading freshman scorer and one of the top rookies in the country, Shea Guthrie broke a 2-2 tie midway through the third period with a great individual effort. Guthrie took control of the puck behind the St. Lawrence net and skated out front after shaking off two hard hits along the boards by the Saints and flipped in his seventh goal of the year for the game-winner at 8:10. Sophomore linemates Shawn Weller and Steve Zalewski assisted on the goal, which gave the Green and Gold their second win of the season over St. Lawrence.
In a fast-paced first period, St. Lawrence and Clarkson traded power-play goals for a 1-1 tie after 20 minutes of play. The Saints opened the period at 8:33 when Mike Zbriger knocked in a rebound from the top of the crease for his 10th goal of the season with classmates T.J. Trevelyan and John Zeiler assisting on St. Lawrence’s first man-advantage opportunity of the contest. After killing off two more Saint power plays, the Knights answered back with their own man-advantage marker at 14:13 as junior defenseman Michael Grenzy picked up a loose puck at the top of the left circle and connected on a slapshot for his third goal of the year.
Clarkson went on top, 2-1, early in the second when freshman Jon Marshall scored his first collegiate goal. Senior defenseman Chris Brekelmans collected a loose puck at the St. Lawrence blueline and ripped a shot from the point. The attempt deflected off the crossbar to Marshall at the left circle, where he wristed in the go-ahead goal at 3:15.
Trevelyan evened the score at 2-2 at 3:58 of the third, knocking in a rebound while on the power play for his 10th goal of the season. Zbriger and freshman defenseman Zach Miskovic assisted.
St. Lawrence out shot Clarkson, 31-27, but Leggio was strong in the Knights’ net, especially in the third period when he posted 13 saves. Leggio’s biggest stop was a pad save on a shot in close by sophomore Charlie Giffin with 1:40 left to play. The Saints pulled sophomore goaltender Justin Pesony for the extra attacker with 72 seconds remaining, and despite keeping the puck in the Clarkson zone for the remainder of the game could not get the tying goal past Leggio. Pesony finished with 24 saves.
The Knights were 1-of-3 on the power play, while St. Lawrence went 2-of-5.
