A dominant effort by the Clarkson University Hockey team over rival Rensselaer opened the ECAC Hockey campaign on an impressive note Friday night at Cheel Arena as the Golden Knights shut out the Engineers 6-0 before a crowd of 2,868.

Sophomore Sheldon Rempal (Calgary, ALB) highlighted the offensive effort with his first career hat trick and classmate Jake Kielly (Owen Sound, ONT) backstopped a stingy defensive effort to record his third shutout of the season and sixth career whitewash.

The Knights were on top of their game right from the start and outshot RPI (1-4-2, 0-3-0) 39-17.

Ranked 13th in the country, Clarkson improves to 5-3-1 overall and will host Union on Saturday at Cheel, beginning at 7:00 p.m.

The Knights began league play with a solid first-period effort, outshooting RPI 15-6 en route to a 3-0 lead through the opening 20 minutes.

Junior defenseman Aaron Thow (Toronto, ONT) started things off just 55 seconds in when his shot from along the boards deflected in off an Engineer defenseman and past RPI goaltender Chase Perry for his first goal of the season.

Forty-one seconds into the first power play of the night, Rempal scored on a quick shot in tight that beat Perry at the near post at 7:14. Senior defenseman Kelly Summers (Golden Lake, ONT) and Terrance Amorosa (Kirkland, ONT) assisted.

Another power-play tally, this time by Summers made it 3-0. Rempal sent a pass out of the corner to Summers at the left circle where the Ottawa Senators draft choice connected on a one-timer at 17:56 for his second goal of the season. Amorosa also picked up an assist.

Rempal scored again at 11:43 of the middle frame, finishing off a pass across the slot by senior defenseman Tyko Karjalainen (Helsinki, Finland). Sophomore center Nico Sturm (Augsburg, Germany) started the scoring play by winning the draw deep in the RPI zone.

Midway through the final stanza, Rempal completed his first collegiate three-goal game, taking a pass in the slot from his linemate, sophomore Devin Brosseau (St. Lambert, QUE) and scoring at 11:43. Karjalainen also recorded an assist for his first career multiple-point game.

Freshman Josh Dickinson ((Georgetown, ONT) closed out the scoring with his first collegiate goal, scoring at the top of the crease with classmate Jack Jacome (Caledon, ONT) assisting.

Clarkson was near perfect on specialty teams going 2-of-3 on the power play and killing off all three of RPI's man-advantage chances.