Clarkson Completes Sweep of Syracuse

Freshman Savannah Harmon opned the scoring in Saturday's win with her second goal of the weekend - photo by Jim Meagher

Box Score
One day after a blowout 9-0 victory, the Clarkson University Women's Hockey team had a tougher go of it in Central NY on Saturday, but the Golden Knights prevailed on the road in defeating Syracuse University 4-1 to finish off a weekend sweep of the Orange.

Ranked 10th in the national polls entering the weekend, Clarkson completes the season-opening, non-league portion of its schedule with a 5-3 record. ECAC Hockey Regular Season Champions in 2013-14, the Knights begin defense of their title when they open up conference play on Tuesday, October 28 by hosting archrival St. Lawrence University at 7:00 p.m. in the first of 22 league contests.

"We knew today was going to be a different game than yesterday and expected Syracuse to come out hard," stated Clarkson Head Coach Matt Desrosiers. "I thought they did a good job on the forecheck tonight and made things difficult at times for us to get out of our own zone. It was one of those games where we had to just keep working hard to win battles all over the ice in order to generate our scoring chances. Our players did a great job today sticking with it and remaining focused throughout the game and were able to capitalize on a few opportunities generated from hard work. We had a lot of players step up and have a big weekend for us which is perfect timing heading into the league portion of our schedule. We need to make sure we carry this momentum into Tuesday's game against St Lawrence."

Coming off the decisive victory over the Orange at Cheel Arena on Friday, the Green and Gold faced a much more determined Syracuse (1-3-4) team at Tennity Ice Skating Pavilion. The Knights were tied 1-1 with the Orange early in the second period, but pulled away from the home team with three unanswered scores to stretch their winning streak in the series to eight straight games.

Freshman defenseman Savannah Harmon (Downers Grove, IL) opened the scoring with her second goal of the weekend with 1:56 remaining in the first period.

Syracuse came back to tie early in the middle frame with Larissa Martyniuk's goal at 4:54. Clarkson then took control midway through the period when junior Olivia Howe (Moose Jaw, SASK) connected on the power play at 9:04 for the game-winner and her second goal of the season.

A pair of goals by junior Cayley Mercer (Exeter, ONT) late in regulation sealed the win for Clarkson. One of the Knights' leading scorers, Mercer tallied her fifth and sixth's goals of the season at 14:26 and 17:54 for her second two-goal outing of the young season.

Sophomore Genevieve Bannon (Candiac, QUE), who tallied a hat trick and two assists in Friday's win, added three more assists in Saturday's victory. Junior captain Shannon MacAulay (Mt. Herbert, PEI) also set up three goals in the win.

Clarkson outshot Syracuse 33-20. The Knights went 1-of-4 on the power play and killed off the Orange's lone extra-man opportunity.

Freshman Shea Tiley (Owen Sound, ONT) posted 19 saves, including 10 in the first period.

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