College hockey: Dutchmen have a winning formula (with videos)

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It’s becoming the norm when Union hosts Clarkson as Messa Rink. The Dutchmen score early, score often and coast to an ECAC Hockey win.

The 14th-ranked Dutchmen scored four goals in the first period Friday night, had a 5-0 lead early in the second and put it on cruise control from there as they rolled to a 5-2 victory over the Golden Knights.

The win moved Union (8-3-3 ECACH, 14-6-6 overall) into a first-place tie with Cornell, which dropped a 2-1 decision to Colgate at Lynah Rink. The Big Red (8-2-3 ECACH) have a game in hand on the Dutchmen.

Union has made Messa at nightmarish place for Clarkson (5-5-3, 11-11-5) the past few seasons. The Dutchmen are 8-0-1 in their last nine games against the Knights at Messa. The previous two seasons saw Union win by scores of 11-2 and 8-1.

And it looked like the Dutchmen were on their way to another rout when they took a 4-0 lead in the first period. Union coach Rick Bennett had a tough time explaining why this has been happening lately when the Dutchmen face the Knights at Messa.

“I wish I had the answer,” Bennett said. “I’d bottle it, and we would try it with every team in the league. We were looking to have a good first period. For about the first four minutes, I thought we were on our heels.”

Bennett may have been exaggerating a bit. It was more like the first two minutes that the Knights had control of the game. But the first two shots Union took on goalie Paul Karpowich ended up in the net.

Freshman center Mark Bennett scored his first collegiate goal at 2:45. He made a nice move cutting from the left wing to the slot, and fired a wrister over Karpowich’s left shoulder.

“Just carrying the puck up the wall, I noticed that their ‘D’ were gapped off,” Mark Bennett said. “I had a good center drive from Cole [Ikkala]. So when he took his ‘D’ man to the net and I cut across, I had a bit of room. I just tried to put it on net, and thankfully, it went in.”

Just 35 seconds later, Josh Jooris, who missed the last two games with a lower-body injury, scored on a wraparound.

Kyle Bodie scored a power-play goal midway through the first. He had a clear lane to the net from the bottom the right circle. His harmless shot got between Karpowich’s pads.

“Kelly [Zajac] did a pretty good job of drawing [the Clarkson] defenseman up,” Bodie said. “He gave me a lot of time to work with. Coach Bennett has been harping on me in practice to stand on that goal line and take it to the net every once in a while, and I did and I got rewarded.”

Wayne Simpson closed out the scoring with a power-play goal, coming as late as a goal can be scored in a period. A video review showed there was a tenth of a second left when the puck caromed off the post and over the goal line.

It was an end to a dream first per­iod for the Dutchmen, and another nightmare for the Knights.

“Obviously, Paul wants a couple of those back,” Clarkson coach Casey Jones said.

It became 5-0 when Union got a short-handed goal just over 21⁄2 minutes into the second. Bodie blocked a Sam Labrecque shot at the right point. The puck bounced into the neutral zone, and Bodie had a step on Labrecque and started a two-on-one break.

As Bodie got close to the net, he found Sam Coatta on his right. The pass was perfect, and Coatta tapped it home.

“Our coaching staff has been kind of harping on us to [put] pressure up at the point,” Bodie said. “Me and Coatta did a nice job on the switch there. I got a bounce off my shin pads, and was off to the races. Coatta was going hard to the net, and I just threw it across to him. He did a great job of bearing down.”

Clarkson 0 1 1 — 2

Union 4 1 0 — 5

First Period — 1, Union, Bennett 1 (Gostisbehere), 2:45. 2, Union, Jooris 3 (Carr), 3:20. 3, Union, K. Bodie 3 (Zajac, Coburn), 8:39 (pp). 4, Union, Simpson 13 (K. Bodie, Coburn), 19:59 (pp). Penalties — Oakley, Cla (slashing), 4:14; Morley, Cla (boarding), 8:19; Julseth-White, Uni (interference), 12:34; McPherson, Cla (hooking), 18:05.

Second Period — 5, Union, Coatta 2 (K. Bodie), 2:32 (sh). 6, Clarkson, Tremblay 12 (Oakley), 11:27. Penalties — Jooris, Uni (slashing), 1:43; Julseth-White, Uni (tripping), 7:55; Morley, Cla (hitting after whistle), 9:38; Stuart, Uni (hitting after whistle), 9:38.

Third Period — 7, Clarkson, Labrecque 5 (McPherson), 11:17. Penalties — Morley, Cla (roughing), 1:24; K. Bodie, Uni (roughing), 1:24; Tansey, Cla (roughing), 5:32; Hatch, Uni (roughing), 5:32; Sexton, Cla (cross-checking), 14:15.

Shots on Goal — Clarkson 3-13-16 — 32. Union 21-8-13 — 42.

Power-play opportunities — Clarkson 0 of 3; Union 2 of 4.

Goalies — Clarkson, Karpowich 11-9-5 (42 shots-37 saves). Union, Grosenick 13-4-3 (32-30).

A — 2,013. T — 2:19.

Referees — Scott Whittemore, Kevin Graber. Linesmen — Christopher Piti, Scott Wheeler.

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Categories: College Sports