Fitting finale for struggling Knights

POTSDAM — A difficult, trying season came to an end Sunday night for the Clarkson University men's hockey team.

And, perhaps fitting for the way things went this year, it was a cruel end.

Clarkson (9-24-4) had a one-goal lead on rival St. Lawrence University in Appleton Arena late in the third period only to see the Saints strike for two goals in the final 5 minutes, 13 seconds.

SLU's 3-2 win in game three of a best-of-three ECAC Hockey first-round series sends the Saints to Colgate for a quarterfinal series next week while Clarkson won't play another competitive hockey game until October.

"It's been a lot of sleepless nights," said Clarkson coach George Roll. "It was just a struggle from the start. It's an emotional year, but I'm proud of our guys. People don't realize what we went through with the injuries, and we had some games where we didn't play well. But, for the most part, these guys battled hard all season. So many little things determined the outcome of games, and it just seemed like none of them went our way."

Clarkson's season was darkened before the team even held its first official practice when two defensive recruits, Patrick McEachen and Jordan Ciccarello, were charged with having sexual contact with an underage girl over the summer.

The pair wound up being suspended from school for a year and that left Clarkson with only seven defensemen on the roster.

Aside from not being able to bench players who may not have been performing well, the lack of depth at that position hurt later in the year when Clarkson had several defensive players injured at once and the team had to play six games with forwards playing back on defense.

Clarkson went through a long stretch of failures this season, going 1-12-3 from Nov. 21-Feb. 6. The lowest point came in an 11-2 loss at Union on national television on Feb. 5.

But just about that time the injured defensive players began returning to the lineup and Clarkson's play started to pick up. The Golden Knights ended the season going 4-4-1 in their last nine games, including this weekend's playoff series.

"I think the future is bright with the guys returning," said Roll. "I thought our young guys on defense (Andrew Himelson and Nik Pokulok) had really good freshmen years. I thought (forward) Nick Tremblay really started coming along. With the kids coming in, I like our prospects of getting it turned around in a hurry next year. But there is going to be a lot of sting from this one."

It's not just Roll who is already looking forward to next season. Two of Clarkson's sophomores spoke about the future after Sunday's game.

"We're a really young team," said goalie Paul Karpowich, who made 108 saves in the series. "We had three seniors and I wish them all the best. We look forward to next year. It's going to be huge for us, and the year after that too. This is just a great experience for all the young guys who don't realize it now. It will help next year in the playoffs."

Said defenseman Mark Borowiecki: "You definitely learn more about yourself when you are in last place and losing all the time and have to fight through a little bit of adversity. Next year is going to be a big year for us. We have a lot of guys coming back and hopefully we'll put a better product on the ice."

The players are aware not only of Clarkson's rich tradition in hockey, but also of the lows the program hit this season. Clarkson finished in last place in the conference for the first time.

"I didn't come here to lose and I know no one else came here to lose," said Borowiecki. "We're going to turn things around next year."