A bid for a second consecutive trip to the ECAC Hockey Championship Tournament for the Clarkson University Women’s Hockey team came up short as the Golden Knights were edged out by eighth-ranked St. Lawrence University in the quarterfinal series in Canton NY over the weekend.

The Knights fell to the Saints on Saturday at Appleton Arena, 2-1, after dropping a 4-3 overtime game on Friday. Clarkson finishes the 2008-09 campaign with a 16-14-6 overall record. The Green and Gold were the 7th-seed in the playoffs with a 10-8-4 ECAC Hockey mark.

In Game 2 on Saturday afternoon, Clarkson, which suffered the heart-breaking overtime loss the night before, started out slow. St. Lawrence, which has never lost to the Knights at Appleton Arena, grabbed a 2-0 lead midway through the first. Carson Duggan tallied at 12:47 and again at 14:24 for all the scoring the Saints would need.

Clarkson made a game of it over the final 40 minutes, dominating St. Lawrence through the second and third, but could only put one goal on the scoreboard despite outshooting the Saints 31-16 over the last two periods.

Freshman Kali Gillanders (Kyle, SASK) tallied her fourth goal of the season, a power-play marker at 16:07 of the middle frame, knocking in a rebound off a shot by classmate Danielle Boudreau (Whitby, ONT). Freshman Juana Baribeau (Amos, QUE) also assisted.

The Knights had numerous other excellent opportunities to score with several loose pucks in the St. Lawrence crease, but could not knock in the tying goal. Clarkson pulled sophomore goaltender Lauren Dahm (Baldwinsville, NY) for the extra attacker with 2:02 left in regulation, but the Saints did a good job of keeping the puck tight along the boards to kill off the remaining time.

Clarkson out shot St. Lawrence 38-25, Dahm made 23 saves. The Knights went 1-of-3 on the power play, while the Saints were 1-of-4 with the man advantage.

St. Lawrence (24-9-3, 16-5-1), the second seed in the playoffs, will play either Dartmouth or Colgate in the semifinals.