Coming off its first loss of the season, the Clarkson University Women's Hockey team opened a seven-game home stand with a convincing 5-1 win over visiting Syracuse University on Tuesday night in Cheel Arena.

The fourth-ranked Golden Knights improve their record to 11-1-2 while Syracuse falls to 5-6-1 on the year.

"I was happy with the effort the team put in tonight," stated head coach Matt Desrosiers. "I thought we started the game with good energy and were able to maintain it for a full 60 minutes. I also thought we did a good job moving the puck which helped us use our speed through the neutral zone and on zone entries. We can definitely take a lot of positives from tonight's game and will look to use those this upcoming weekend."

Clarkson wasted little time opening the scoring. Just 2:46 into the game Clarkson had its first goal off the stick of junior Genevieve Bannon. After junior assistant captain Cayley Mercer and senior assistant captain Olivia Howe combined to work the puck deep into Syracuse's end, Howe's close-range shot rebounded to Bannon who tapped it home.

The Green and Gold added a second goal with less than two minutes remaining in the period. In her first game back from playing with Team Canada, senior assistant captain Renata Fast made a nice pass to senior captain Shannon MacAulay in front of the net and MacAulay's one-time shot beat the Syracuse goaltender for a power-play goal.

Clarkson added two more goals in the middle period. First, the trio of Mercer, Howe, and Bannon again combined for a goal, this time it was Howe who scored off a scramble in front of the net. Then, just 1:25 later, freshman Loren Gabel added a fourth goal. Gabel's goal came when freshman Rhyen McGill's shot looked to be going just wide, but Gabel reached out from behind the net and used her stick to redirect the puck into the goal. Fellow freshman Emma Keenan also had an assist on the score.

The Golden Knights added a fifth and final goal in the third period. Freshman Cassidy Vinkle slipped a pass across the Syracuse goalmouth and senior assistant captain Erin Ambrose swept in and shot it into the goal for Ambrose's first goal of the year.

Syracuse was able to score a consolation goal with 32 seconds remaining. Two Clarkson penalties gave the Orange a 5-on-3 advantage and Megan Quinn used the extra space to line up a shot from near the blue-line, beating Clarkson sophomore goaltender Shea Tiley.

Overall, Clarkson finished with a 34-21 edge in shots, the twelfth time this season that Clarkson has outshot its opponent. Clarkson scored on its sole power-play while Syracuse took advantage of just one of its seven extra-man opportunities. In goal, Tiley finished with 20 saves for the Green and Gold.

Clarkson will continue its home-stand with two games against Connecticut on Friday and Saturday in Cheel Arena.