Rust had little effect on the Clarkson University Women's Hockey team which dropped Yale 5-2 on Friday night in New Haven, Connecticut

Clarkson extends its record to 16-3-2 overall and 4-3-2 in ECAC Hockey action, while Yale's sour start to the season sees the Bulldogs fall to 4-11-1 overall and 3-5-1 in conference.

"Tonight was a great game for us to have after coming off such a long break," said Head Coach Matt Desrosier. "I thought we did a very good job executing a lot of the things we have been focusing and working on in practice over the past week. We had to battle our way back a couple times during the game, but I thought as soon as we kept it simple things started to come together for us. All things considered we are very happy with our effort tonight and need to make sure we play the same way tomorrow at Brown."

The Golden Knights entered the weekend having not played a competitive game since the first weekend in December and three of their most senior players spending the week playing with Team Canada at the Nations Cup. Although senior captain Shannon MacAulay, as well as senior captain Erin Ambrose and junior assistant captain Cayley Mercer returned from their international experience in time for the game, the timing of the Green and Gold felt off in the early going.

Yale took an early 1-0 lead less than three minutes into the first period, on a goal by Krista Yip-Chuck. Clarkson was able to tie the game at one goal apiece 8:50 into the first period on a goal by Mercer, with freshman Kelly Mariani and Ambrose picking up assists. Yale, however, answered with the first goal of the second period coming off the stick of Jordan Chancellor.

Clarkson's talent and determination began to shine through in the second half of the middle period though, and the Golden Knights finally tied the game up at the 13:04 mark. It was sophomore Katelyn Fournier, scoring the first goal of her Clarkson career, who knotted the game at two. Freshman Rhyen McGill and sophomore Lauren Lefler had the assists on Fournier's score.

Just 2:19 later, Clarkson added a third goal, taking a lead it did not relinquish. The game-winner came from Mercer, through the play of senior assistant captain Olivia Howe and freshman Emma Keenan who had the assists. For Mercer that was her 17th goal of the season, her 44th career tally and her 98th career point.

The Green and Gold added two insurance goals in quick succession in the third period. McGill got the first when she scored off a feed from Ambrose with classmate Josiane Pozzebon also nabbing an assist. Then MacAulay clinched the game with a goal 34 seconds later. Junior Genevieve Bannon and Ambrose (with her third helper of the night) had the assists on the final goal.

Clarkson finished with a 39-14 edge in shots and shut down both of Yale's power-plays, although Clarkson could not score on its own extra man opportunity. Sophomore goaltender Shea Tiley made 12 saves for Clarkson while Hanna Mandl had 34 stops for the Bulldogs.

Clarkson will try to stay undefeated in 2016 when it travels to Brown for a 4:00 pm contest on Saturday afternoon.