POTSDAM, N.Y. – The Union College women's hockey team forced the fourth ranked Clarkson Golden Knights to overtime but fell 2-1 in their season finale on Saturday afternoon at Cheel Arena.
Junior forward
Christine Valente tallied a power play goal early in the third period to tie the game. Senior captain
Maddy Norton took a shot from the point that was deflected through the five-hole of Clarkson goaltender Erica Howe by Valente. Junior defenseman
Alex Tancrell-Fontaine also tallied an assist on the play.
In overtime, the Golden Knights would win the opening draw and control the puck in the attacking zone and 61 seconds into overtime Carly Mercer would find Howe in front of the net. Howe would sneak the puck by junior goaltender
Shenae Lundberg to tally the game winner.
The Golden Knights held the advantage in the faceoff circle, 14-3, but only held a 9-7 shot advantage after one period.
Fourteen seconds into the second period, after winning the opening draw, the Golden Knights scored first as Brittany Styner found classmate Jamie Lee Rattray behind the goal line in the Union zone. Rattray would pass out the Erin Ambrose at the right faceoff circle and Ambrose blasted a blistering one-timer over the glove of Lundberg to put the Golden Knights up 1-0.
Clarkson controlled the tempo throughout the first eight minutes of the second period, but an interference penalty led to a power-play for Union. As soon as the Knights killed off the penalty, a tripping call against the Knights led to another Dutchwomen power-play, and four straight minutes of skating down a man for Clarkson.
Union would force another penalty, leading to two more consecutive minutes on the wrong side of a five-on-four situation. Clarkson would kill the penalty and skate at even strength for the first time in six minutes.
After Valente tied the game at the 5:24 mark in the third period, a tripping penalty against the Dutchwomen led to a power-play for the Knights and despite multiple opportunities right in front of the net Clarkson could not break the tie.
A body-checking penalty with less than four minutes to play would lead to another Golden Knight power-play but the Dutchwomen defense would stop try after try to keep the game tied.
Clarkson outshot Union 32-14 on the afternoon and won 38 of 51 face-offs. Union scored the only power-play goal of the game, going 1-5 with the man advantage while Clarkson ended 0-5 with the extra skater.
Lundberg finished the game with 30 saves, marking the 17th time this year she has stopped 25 or more shots in a game.
With the loss the Dutchwomen finish the season a program best 9-24-1 overall and 4-18-0. Coach
Claudia Asano Barcomb became the winningest coach in program history and senior
Stefanie Thomson finished second in program history with eight career power play goals.
