It was a long night for the Clarkson University Hockey team in Troy, NY on Friday evening as the Golden Knights suffered their first shutout in ECAC Hockey play this season, falling 5-0 to Rensselaer at Houston Field House.

The Golden Knights, who have lost out on a bid for a first-round bye in the upcoming ECAC Hockey playoffs, can still clinch a home-ice bid in the opening round of conference postseason play next weekend with a victory Saturday night against Union in Schenectady in the final game of the regular season. The Green and Gold, who own an 8-10-3 league record, can finish from seventh to ninth in the final ECAC Hockey standings. Clarkson is 9-17-7 overall.

Perhaps the league’s hottest team down the stretch, Rensselaer (16-12-5, 11-7-3) handed the Knights one of its worst losses of the year, ending Clarkson’s two-game winning streak at Houston Field House.

The Engineers jumped out to a 2-0 first-period lead on goals by Milos Bubela at 14:55 and Mike Zalewski at 19:17. Rensselaer put the game away in the middle frame with three more scores to hold a commanding 5-0 advantage through 40 minutes.

Zalewski, the younger brother of former Golden Knight standout Steve Zalewski ’08, tallied his second of the night at 1:31 chasing Clarkson starter, freshman Greg Lewis (Mars, PA) from the game. Guy Leboeuf made it 4-0 at 3:40 and Curtis Leonard closed out the scoring at 17:12.

Rensselaer outshot Clarkson 28-15. Lewis posted 10 saves on 13 shots. Senior Cody Rosen (Kingston, ONT) played the final 38 minutes in the Knights’ crease and finished with 13 saves.

ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Month, Jason Kasdorf turned aside all 15 shots he faced for RPI.

Clarkson was 0-of-2 on the power play and killed off all three of the Engineer’s man-advantage chances.