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HAMILTON – Greg Fargo's bunch showed Friday night that last month's signature win in the North Country was no fluke.

Colgate put another big scare into the sixth-ranked team in the country, Clarkson, before falling 3-1 at Starr Rink. The Raiders led 1-0 and had a player advantage nearing the midway point of the second period when the Golden Knights nabbed a short-handed goal to begin their comeback.

“We played really well, especially in the first period,” Fargo said. “We controlled a lot of the pace of the game, but we got away a little bit in the second period from some of the detail things we talked about.”

Colgate defeated then-No. 2 Clarkson 2-1 back on Dec. 1 in Potsdam. It's the only ECAC loss on the Golden Knights' ledger, and Round 2 was headed Colgate's way as well when the scales suddenly tipped.

“On that power play, things were going well for us and then we give up one we'd like to have back,” Fargo said. “It seemed like we could never really fully recover from it and get back into the flow of the game.”

Clarkson's Danielle Skirrow scored the tying marker off a feed from Shelby Nisbet. The goal came after a Knights short-handed flurry into the offensive zone led to a shot that Colgate freshman goalie Ashlynne Rando stopped but couldn't corral. Nisbet got the rebound, fed Skirrow and suddenly it was 1-1 at 8:43 of the second period.

Skirrow's goal was her 11th of the year and first short-handed.

Rando was solid throughout the first period, stopping 10 Clarkson shots. The Golden Knights had their best chance at the 11:25 mark when Jamie Lee Rattray and Christine Lambert formed a 2-on-1 chance that was denied at the doorstep by Rando.

New Power Play Succeeds
Seven seconds later, Clarkson was tagged for its second penalty of the game – checking by Skirrow – and the Raiders took immediate advantage. Rachel Walsh won the faceoff in the right circle and the puck found its way onto Katie Case's stick. Case pushed the puck to Melissa Kueber, who connected with Jocelyn Simpson left of goal where she nudged it past Clarkson goalie Erica Howe for the 1-0 lead at 11:44 of the first.

“It's a new power play so we were pretty excited to score right off the bat,” said Simpson, a junior winger from the Chicago suburb of Shorewood, Ill. “We worked hard and it paid off.”

The goal was Simpson's sixth of the year – second on the team to Brittany Phillips (eight).

Clarkson's Lambert again had a great chance early in the second, breaking clear with the puck and skating all the way across the slot in search of a seam. But Rando stood tall and denied the Knights sophomore to preserve her clean sheet at least for the moment.

That went away when Skirrow tied it, but Colgate nearly recaptured the lead after killing off a Clarkson power play. Phillips put together a semi-breakaway chance, yet the Manitoba senior couldn't get off a completely uncontested shot and Howe was able to keep herself in front for the save.

Clarkson then took the lead on a power play goal. After a shot by Carly Mercer, Erin Ambrose poked home a close rebound for a 2-1 visitors' advantage at 13:13 of the second. It was Ambrose's third of the year, all on the power play.

To start the third period, Rando kept it a one-goal game for a few moments longer with a nice stop of Rattray's big chance left of goal. But Clarkson struck again and Lambert finally found the target.

The sophomore center gained possession at center ice and zigzagged her way through Colgate defenders, firing a 10-footer straight through Rando's pads for a 3-1 edge at 4:54 of the final period. Ambrose and Jennifer Shields carded the assists on Lambert's third goal this season.

60 Minutes, Not 20
Colgate's Jenna Klynstra and Phillips mustered decent chances over the middle portion of the final period. Klynstra's shot from 35 feet clanked off the right post, and then Phillip fired straight into the midsection of Howe, who held on for one of her 17 saves.

Rando, who had 24 saves, was pulled from goal with 2 minutes remaining but Colgate never could mount a serious challenge.

“They're a great team and we knew we were going to have to play really hard,” Simpson said of Clarkson. “But we came in mentally prepared. We were ready for them and we gave everything we had.”

The Raiders, now 6-14-2 overall and 1-8-2 in ECAC play, host St. Lawrence on Saturday at 4 p.m. Clarkson improves to 18-5 and 10-1 heading to Cornell.

“We'll put this one behind us,” Fargo said. “There were some good things from tonight that we'll build upon. We want to improve and continue to play with the same urgency we showed early for an entire game. For us, some key details are important as we move forward, and those are things we've got to do for 60 minutes and not 20.

“But I like the effort, and if we do that we will be in good shape.”