Junior Jeff DiNallo (Aurora, ONT) posted a career-high four points on two goals and two assists and classmate Greg Lewis (Mars, PA) made 24 saves as the Clarkson University Hockey team closed out a five-game home stand on an upbeat note with a convincing 5-2 victory over rival Rensselaer at Cheel Arena Saturday night.

The Golden Knights, who snapped a two-game losing skid, improved to 11-13-4 overall and to 8-6-2 in ECAC Hockey. With six games remaining in the regular season Clarkson is in a four-way tie for third place in the conference. The Green and Gold play at Princeton and Quinnipiac next weekend.

After allowing the first goal to Rensselaer (9-20-1, 7-9-0), the Knights took control with a strong night on specialty teams. Clarkson went 2-of-5 with the man-advantage, scoring both goals seconds after the power play had begun. The Knights killed off both of RPI's power plays. The Knights were also dominant on faceoffs, winning 44 of 73 draws (60.2%).

The Knights went on the power play just 30 seconds into the game. Moments after a successful penalty kill by the Engineers there was a 20-minute delay when Clarkson freshman Nic Pierog (Georgetown, ONT) checked RPI defenseman Luke Curadi into the glass, shattering the pane at 3:13. After the lengthy cleanup process the teams shook off the rust and combined for two goals in a nine-second span.

Rensselaer struck first at 8:21 with a goal by Jacob Laliberte from the right circle with Drew Melanson and Riley Bourbonnais assisting. The Knights came right back at 8:30 with a power-play marker from DiNallo. Just five seconds into their second man-advantage opportunity of the period, DiNallo redirected a shot from in front by freshman Janick Asselin (Coaticook, QUE) for his fourth goal of the season. Freshman defenseman Kelly Summers (Golden Lake, ONT) also assisted.

Benefiting from three power-play chances, the Green and Gold outshot the Engineers 14-7 through the opening 20 minutes.

The Knights pull away in the middle frame with their most productive period of the season offensively with a four-goal outburst.

Clarkson started the scoring early, just 25 seconds in when sophomore A.J. Fossen's (Maple Grove, MN) shot in the slot deflected off an Engineer defenseman and up and over RPI goaltender Jason Kasdorf for his first goal of the season. DiNallo and junior defenseman Paul Geiger (Stouffville, ONT) assisted.

The Knights struck quickly again on the power play when Summers fired in a shot from the point just four seconds into the man-advantage after a faceoff win by DiNallo at 5:13

Rensselaer got one back at 15:30 with Mark McGowan's fourth goal of the year. Clarkson regained the momentum when Asselin knocked in a rebound off a shot by sophomore defenseman Bryan Sinz (Anchorage, AK) at 17:41. Junior Pat Megannety (Oakville, ONT) also assisted.

With 21 seconds left in the period, DiNallo tallied off Summers' second assist of the night to make it 5-2 after 40 minutes.

The Engineers had their goaltender out for the extra attacker for the majority of the final six minutes of the game, but Clarkson kept the visitors from getting any closer. The Knights held a 30-26 shot advantage