Despite a strong second-period showing and a late rally in the third, the Clarkson University Hockey team could not overcome a slow start and fell to Dartmouth 6-4 in ECAC Hockey action at Thompson Arena in Hanover, NH on Friday night.

With the loss on the road the Golden Knights fall into a tie for fifth place in the league standings with Quinnipiac, but with the Bobcats owning the head-to-head tie-breaker over the Green and Gold, Clarkson is sixth in the league with one game to play in the regular season. Clarkson, which owns a 9-8-4 conference mark and a 15-14-6 overall record, plays at Harvard on Saturday. The Knights are one point behind the Crimson and one point ahead of seventh-place Yale.

Dartmouth (11-13-4, 8-10-3) jumped out to a commanding 4-0 first-period lead as the Tyler Sikura Line accounted for the first three goals. Shortly after killing off a Clarkson power play, the lone man-advantage of the stanza, the Big Green started their scoring burst as Matt Lindblad pounced on a rebound at the top of the Clarkson crease at 5:24. Linemate Eric Neiley made it 2-0 on a similar play at 10:31, followed by Sikura’s redirection off a shot from the point at 13:26. Brandon McNally capped off a strong opening 20 minutes for Dartmouth, scoring with just .3 seconds remaining in the period.

The Knights got back in the game with a solid second-period showing, which resulted in two goals. Similar to Dartmouth in the first period, Clarkson took control of the momentum in the middle frame shortly after killing off a penalty. Junior defenseman Andrew Himelson (Monroe, NY) tallied his second goal of the season, converting a pass from sophomore Will Frederick (Alison Park, PA) on a 2-on-1 rush at 2:30. Clarkson scored again at 7:02 as junior Adam Pawlick (Utica, NY) tallied on the power, putting in a shot from the top of the crease after a pass from senior Nick Tremblay (Candiac, QUE). Sophomore Ben Sexton (Kanata, ONT) also assisted.

Dartmouth opened the final frame with its fifth goal at 11:14 with Connor Goggin scoring. With time winding down, and trailing by three goals, Clarkson mounted rally with a pair of goals 26 seconds apart to make it a 5-4 contest. Sophomore Allan McPherson (Kinburn, ONT)redirected a shot from the point by Himelson at 14:38, followed by senior Louke Oakley’s (Whitby, ONT) 15th goal off a rebound at 15:04. Freshman defenseman James Howden (Edgeley, SASK) assisted.

The Big Green, however, were able to hold on for the victory and sealed the win with an empty-net goal by McNally with 47 seconds left on the clock.

The Knights outshot Dartmouth 39-35. Both teams were 1-of-4 on the power play. Senior Paul Karpowich (Thunder Bay, ONT) finished with 29 saves.