Not surprisingly, teams are grouped very tightly in the ECAC Hockey standings. A few good weeks can positively impact a team’s status, and a brief slump can see a team sliding toward the bottom of the pack.
Guthrie is red-hot and Clarkson has benefited. He has nine points in the last four games.
Clarkson has been the latest beneficiary of this annual logjam and four straight conference wins have lifted the Golden Knights from last place to seventh. They’re just three points back of fifth-place Quinnipiac, but also only four points clear of 11th-place Brown.
The Golden Knights have won four in a row, by identical 4-3 scores. The last three wins have come in overtime including last week’s triumphs over Union and Rensselaer. Senior forward Shea Guthrie scored both OT goals and was named INCH National Player of the Week. He earned ECAC Hockey Player of the Week honors for the second week in a row.
Guthrie missed time at the start of the season due to injury, but he and linemates Chris D’Alvise and Matt Beca have come on in recent games. The trio has combined for 19 points in the last four games. Nine of Guthrie’s 14 points this season have come during the winning streak.
“Of these past four games, we could have been on the losing end, but we are finding ways to win. Our go-to guys are now difference makers. I can’t say enough good things about the play of Shea Guthrie, Chris D’Alvise and Matt Beca. They have been leading us. If we are going to continue to win, they are the line that has to carry us. They have certainly turned around our season, and theirs,” Clarkson head coach George Roll said.
On the play of Guthrie, Roll remarked, “I think the big thing is the way he is working. I have probably been harder on Shea than on any player this year. My expectations are pretty high for him. In the last four games, he has been using his speed, working hard, and has been first on loose pucks. When he does those things he is a dominant player. That becomes contagious. When your best players are your hardest working guys, it seems to get the whole team going.”
Things are much better these days for a Clarkson team that went nearly two months without a win before surprising Miami in the semifinals of the Ohio Hockey Classic. Back-to-back non-league losses to St. Lawrence have been countered by the recent winning streak. This week’s challenge sees Colgate and Cornell visit Cheel Arena, followed by ECAC Hockey tilts in a home-and-home series against the rival Saints.
