POTSDAM — Clarkson seniors Troy Josephs and James de Haas played their final game in Cheel Arena on Saturday night and made it memorable with a 4-2 victory over Rensselaer, giving the Golden Knights a sweep of a best-of-three men’s ECAC Hockey first-round playoff series.
Clarkson (17-14-5 overall), the No. 6 seed in the field, will travel to No. 3 Cornell next weekend for a best-of-three quarterfinal series.
Josephs scored two goals for a third straight game and de Haas also scored for Clarkson.
As soon as the game ended, de Haas faced Clarkson’s pep band and gave them a wave.
“It’s crazy,” de Haas said. “I had a lot of good memories here, a lot of big wins. They are always there supporting us and cheering us on no matter what. I was giving them a little bit of credit, I guess.”
Josephs, who has now scored 19 goals this season, after scoring just 10 in his first three seasons combined, was also emotional about his final game at Cheel Arena.
“It was awesome,” Josephs said. “These are things I’ll remember after I leave here. I’ll take the win any day of the week. I’m just happy we got that win and we’ll move on to the next round.”
No. 11 RPI (8-28-1) owned the best power play in ECAC Hockey during the regular season and scored two power-play goals Saturday.
But Clarkson outperformed the Engineers with the man advantage, scoring three times on the power play.
“I thought we played a little more of a complete game tonight,” Clarkson coach Casey Jones said. “I didn’t really plan on giving them two power plays in the third period, with their power play clicking. We did say between periods, talking as coaches, the first team that figures out the penalty kill is going to win the game. There were two good kills for us there at the end, we really didn’t give them much. That was a big turning point for us, I thought, in the third period.”
Josephs got the scoring started for Clarkson with a power-play goal at 5 minutes, 51 seconds of the opening period, connecting off a pass from Kelly Summers with de Haas also assisting.
RPI responded with a power-play goal from Riley Bourbonnais to tie the game at 14:40 of the first period.
Josephs scored his second power-play goal of the game at 18:50 of the first period to give Clarkson the lead for good.
“It something you strive for, to make sure you be productive,” Josephs said. “But the way it’s turned out, it’s been really good and I’ve been rolling with the confidence and making sure every game counts.”
De Haas extended the lead to 3-1 with his power-play goal at 11:36 of the second period, with Josephs assisting.
“I just saw the puck was stuck on the wall and I was kind of open in the soft area,” de Haas said. “The puck came out and their (defenseman) was bunching his stick on me. I just tried to get a puck to the net and it found its way in.”
Bourbonnais scored his second power-play goal of the game at 19:53 of the second to cut the lead to 3-2.
But Clarkson ensured it was the last power-play goal for the Engineers, holding RPI scoreless on two attempts in the third period and allowing only two shots during those attempts.
“I think when it came down to it, we beared down, blocked shots and chipped pucks out,” Clarkson defenseman Kelly Summers said.
Nic Pierog closed out the scoring for Clarkson with an empty-net goal with 18.7 seconds remaining in regulation.
Clarkson’s players appreciated dispatching RPI in two regulation games, having learned a lesson from last season when it swept Princeton at home, but both games went to overtime, including one game that went to two overtimes.
“You get into overtime games and the one night double overtime, and it takes its toll on you, even with a week before the next games,” de Haas said. “It sticks with you. You don’t get fully recovered. It’s definitely good we got it down in 120 minutes this weekend.”