A three-goal spurt in a span of 1:45 early in the third period enabled the Clarkson University Hockey team to put a scare into Union College, but the 7th-ranked Dutchmen were able to add to the nation’s longest winning streak by pulling out a 4-3 overtime victory in ECAC Hockey action at Cheel Arena on Friday night.The Golden Knights, who stand at 14-15-2 overall, remain in 7th-place in the ECAC Hockey standings with an 8-10-1 league mark with three games remaining in the regular season. The Green and Gold close out the home portion of their schedule on Saturday with a 7:00 p.m. face off against 14th-ranked Rensselaer.Winners of eight straight, Union has the most wins in Division I with a 23-7-3 overall record. The Dutchmen stand in first place in the conference with a 15-3-1 league slate and can finish no lower than second in the standings. The Dutchmen play at St. Lawrence on Saturday.
Trailing 3-0 after two periods, Clarkson turned it on to start the third and made it a 3-3 game before the period was seven-minutes old.Junior Corey Tamblyn (Bobcaygeon, ONT) started the Knights’ rally when he knocked in a rebound off of freshman defenseman Alex Boak’s (Norwood, NY) shot from the point at 4:45. Senior Scott Freeman (Whitby, ONT) also assisted.
Just 18 seconds later, freshman Ben Sexton (Kanata, ONT), back in the lineup after a three-month absence due to injury, made his presence felt when he deflected in a shot by senior Brandon DeFazio (Oakville, ONT) to pull Clarkson to within one at 5:03. Freshman Allan McPherson (Kinburn, ONT) also assisted.
At 6:30, Freeman connected on the power play to tie the game, finishing off an assist from DeFazio.
Union, however, was able to come away with the road win. At 3:48 of the extra session, Wayne Simpson connected off an assist from Kevin Sullivan after the Knights’ just failed to clear the zone.Union capitalized on two of its 15 chances in the first period to take a 2-0 lead after the opening 20 minutes. Eighteen seconds into their second power play of the game, the Bulldogs opened the scoring when Greg Coburn tucked in a shot at the left post for his fifth goal of the season at 7:14. Union took advantage of a Clarkson turnover in the Knights end and went on top 2-0 at 17:25 as Kelly Zajac netted his 10th of the season.Late in the second period, Union took a 3-0 lead on its first shorthanded goal of the season. At 18:39, John Simpson picked up a loose puck at center ice and scored on a partial breakaway, firing in a quick wrist shot from the right circle for his seventh goal of the year.Union outshot Clarkson 38-28. Junior Paul Karpowich (Thunder Bay, ONT) made 34 saves in the Clarkson net. Keith Kinkaid made 25 stops for the Dutchmen.The Knights’ held Union’s number-one ranked power play to just one goal in seven man-advantage chances. Clarkson was 1-of-5 on the power play.