A 2-2 tie

photo courtesy of Clarksonathletics.com

Clarkson rallied and came up with a late power-play goal to earn a 2-2 tie with Canisius on Saturday. The tie snapped a six-game losing streak just one game shy of tying the school record for a single-season losing streak (seven set in the 1943-44 season).

Here were my five things to watch for prior to the game:

Special teams - another win for Clarkson in this category as the power-play continues to show signs of coming around. Clarkson tied the game with a power-play goal from Lauri Tuohimaa and went 1-for-3 while killing two penalties and allowing Canisius only one power-play shot.

Defense - again, more improvement as Clarkson held the Golden Griffins to just 17 shots for the game and only five combined shots in the second and third periods.

Offense - this is still a concern as Clarkson continues to struggle to score goals. Shea Guthrie did get his first goal of the season and it wouldn't surprise me if that leads to more goals this weekend for him. Clarkson did have chances, taking 36 shots, and hit a few posts.

LaVeau - Freshman Richie LaVeau earned his first playing time and played well, stopping 15 of 17 shots. He stopped one breakaway.

Get a lead - again Clarkson struggled in this category. The team has not led after two periods since the season-opener against RIT and it seems like forever since the last time Clarkson scored the first goal of a game. I believe it was in the loss at Dartmouth a few weeks ago.

BONUS COMMENTS
Canisius coach Dave Smith on whether this series will continue. He said Clarkson is not going there next year but will play at Canisius two years from now and added, "We'd really like to play a lot of the New York state schools. It's good for us. We want to play schools like Clarkson, St. Lawrence and Colgate, all those."