No. 6 Clarkson Drops Saints 5-0 to Win Game One

Feb. 26: The St. Lawrence University women's hockey team suffered a 5-0 loss to No. 6 Clarkson University on Friday afternoon in the opening game of a best-of-three ECAC Hockey Quarterfinal series.  Clarkson goalie Lauren Dahm made 19 saves to earn the shutout, and five different players had goals as the Knights defeated the Saints in the postseason for the first time.

St. Lawrence falls to 15-13-7 on the season with the loss, which saw the trio seniors Maxie Weisz and Brittony Chartier and junior Nikki Bongaerts combine for 26 saves in net.  An 0-for-4 effort on the power play for the Saints, ranked 10^th in the country in that category, hurt the squad's chances of pulling off the upset in the opening contest.  Meanwhile, Clarkson improves to 21-9-5 overall and finished with a sound 30-19 advantage in shots on goal.

"The fact is, we were outworked in every aspect of the game," said St. Lawrence head coach Chris Wells.  "Clarkson was more prepared to play this afternoon, and that is on my shoulders."

The two North Country rivals skated to a scoreless first period, with the majority of the play coming between the blue lines.  The Knights appeared to have taken a 1-0 lead at 10:33, but the official blew the whistle after losing sight of the puck, which wiped the goal off of the scoreboard.

Weisz made nine saves in the first period, including several from point-blank range.  Dahm, meanwhile, had her busiest stanza of the evening, stopping nine shots as well including a key stop on St. Lawrence rookie Kelly Sabatine during the visitor's first power play of the game.    

Clarkson would waste little time in the second period in taking the lead, 1-0.  With the puck settled in front of the St. Lawrence goal, Clarkson's Kali Gillanders poked it towards Weisz.  Her bid appeared to hit a St. Lawrence defender's skate, as it changed direction and scooted past the goalie for Gillanders' third of the season at 3:49 of the second period.

St. Lawrence tried to answer, arguably had its best chance of the game midway through the frame when sophomores Alley Bero and Vanessa Emond skated in on a two-on-one on Dahm.  The Clarkson netminder, one of the premier goalies in the nation, stood her ground and made a key glove save on Emond's wrist shot headed for the corner of the net to keep the home team on top.

Dahm's play in goal allowed the Knights to pick up their offensive attack, which paid off at 16:01 when Dominique Thibault made it a 2-0 game on another fluke goal on Chartier, who replaced Weisz midway through the period.  After a turnover by St. Lawrence in the defensive zone, Danielle Skirrow snapped a shot towards goal.  However, the puck again ricocheted off of a Saints' defensemen directly to the goal mouth, where Thibault was waiting for the easy finish.

Early in the third period, the Saints appeared to have started to curb the momentum as they efficiently killed a Clarkson power play.  However, only 11 seconds after that power play came to an end, Gillanders centered a no-look-pass from behind the Saints' net right on the tape of Britney Selina, who snapped a wrist shot past Chartier's glove for a 3-0 cushion for the Golden Knights.  Selina's 10^th goal of the season came at 6:25.

Though Coach Wells opted to pull the goalie at the 10 minute mark of the third, the Saints simply could not earn many quality bids as the Clarkson defense protected Dahm by blocking shot after shot.  Daris Tendler would put the game out of reach with an empty net goal at 18:05 to put the Knights up 4-0.  Gabrielle Kosziwka would add to the Saints' frustration only 36 seconds later when she scored her fifth of the year on Bongaerts to cap the scoring and give the home team a thorough 5-0 victory.

The Saints were shut out for the fourth time this season, and the third time in 11 games.  Weisz made 14 saves while Chartier added 11 for St. Lawrence, while Dahm picked up her ninth shutout of 2009-10. 

The Knights, who have been eliminated by St. Lawrence in the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals in two of the last three seasons, will look to sweep the series and end the Saints' season tomorrow, Saturday, February 27^th at Cheel Arena.  The puck will drop on game two at 2:00pm.