ECAC Friday Night Round-Up: Quinnipiac, Clarkson Continue Hot Starts

Clarkson and Quinnipiac continued their stellar early season play on the first full night of ECAC league action. Harvard and RPI matched up on Tuesday, but Friday was the first night of the season with six league games.

Late Heroics Lead Clarkson Past Brown

Clarkson, unbeaten in its last six outings, scored the game-winning goal with under two minutes to play in the third period to defeat Brown, 4-3. A pair of freshmen connected to break the tie just over a minute after Brown had knotted the score. A.J. Fossen buried the game-winner on a feed from fellow rookie Troy Josephs.

Allan McPherson scored his fourth goal of the season for the Golden Knights. Sophomore goaltender Greg Lewis made 30 saves on 33 shots faced for his fourth win of the season. Brown's top line connected for two goals -- scored by Matt Lorito and Nick Lappin -- to continue their solid play.

Clarkson, now 7-1-1, will face Yale Saturday night while Brown will host St. Lawrence.

Yale Rallies to Tie St. Lawrence on Banner Night

Greg Carey scored a goal and an assist to lift St. Lawrence to a 3-1 lead, but Yale battled back to force the 3-3 draw. Boston Bruins draft pick Rob O'Gara's tally with one second left in the second period stood up as the game-tying goal. Saints goaltender Matt Weninger made 34 saves while Yale freshman Alex Lyon stopped 29 shots.

Yale raised its 2013 NCAA Championship banner prior to the start of the game.

Third Period Explosion Lifts Quinnipiac Past Colgate

Quinnipiac's top line -- Sam Anas, Kellen Jones and Connor Jones -- continued to pace to the Bobcats offensively. Connor Jones had a pair of goals and an assist, Anas had a goal and two assists, and Kellen Jones had a goal and a helper as the Bobcats rolled past Colgate, 7-2.

Colgate led 1-0 after 20 minutes, but the Bobcats scored twice in the second period to hold a 2-1 lead heading to the final period. Rand Pecknold's team scored five times in the third to blow the game open. Quinnipiac has won seven consecutive games after falling to Alaska-Anchorage in the season opener. QU will play Cornell Saturday night while Colgate will play host to Princeton.

Cornell Wins Conference, Home Opener

Cornell took a 4-0 lead after two periods and held on for a 4-2 victory over Princeton in the team's home opener at Lynah Rink in Ithaca. The Big Red scored four goals on just 13 shots in the first two periods. Mike Schafer's team was paced by its first line. John McCarron scored a goal and two assists, and Joel Lowry and Christian Hilbrich had a goal and an assist each. Andy Iles had 26 saves on 28 shots for his third victory of the season.

Union Routs Dartmouth

Union dominated the Big Green in every facet of the game in front of 2,347 at Thompson Arena in Hanover en route to a 7-2 victory. Sam Coatta scored two goals and five other players scored one goal each for the Dutchmen. Daniel Carr had a goal and an assist. The senior's second period tally was his 59th career goal, tying him with Mario Valeri-Trabuco for most all-time in program history.

Colin Stevens made 15 saves in his first start back after an injury kept him out of the line-up since the first period of the team's season opener against Bowling Green. The Dutchmen will take on Harvard Saturday in Cambridge.

Girard, Harvard Shut Out RPI

Jimmy Vesey and Kyle Criscuolo scored for the Crimson who took three of four points from RPI in their season series. Raphael Girard made 28 saves in the 2-0 victory for his second shutout in two starts for the season.

The Engineers took a 3-0 lead over Harvard in the team's contest on Tuesday night in Troy. After that strong start Seth Appert's team has been held scoreless in the team's last five periods plus the Tuesday night overtime. The Engineers will look to get back on track Saturday night at Dartmouth.

Jeff Cox covers college and junior hockey, NCAA recruiting, NHL Draft prospects and the AHL for SBNation. Follow him on twitter @JeffCoxSBNation.