Powered by the second hat trick of the weekend by junior Cayley Mercer the Clarkson University Women's Hockey team defeated the University of New Hampshire 6-4 at Cheel Arena on Saturday afternoon.

The Golden Knights, who also defeated the Wildcats (0-7) 4-2 on Friday, completed the season-opening non-league portion of the schedule with a perfect 9-0 record, the longest winning streak in the nation this season.

"Today was a little bitter sweet as it is great we came away with the win, but I thought we were a bit sloppy at times throughout the game which cost us a few goals against", said Clarkson Head Coach Matt Desrosiers. "We continued to do some things well but fell into a few bad habits that we will need to clean up before next weekend. Cayley Mercer had another great game and really elevated her play this weekend coming away with two hat tricks. I also thought Olivia Howe and Genvieve Bannon had strong weekends for us as well. All things considered we are happy with where the team is at this point in the season and are going to take the opportunities to learn from both games this weekend in order to keep improving."

Clarkson controlled play throughout most of the contest, outshooting the Wildcats 36-23, but UNH held tough and never trailed by more than two goals.

Clarkson came out strong against the Wildcats and took a quick 2-0 lead with goals less than three minutes apart.

Mercer opened the scoring at 6:19. Mercer won a faceoff back to freshman defenseman Emma Keenan, whose shot from the point was blocked in front. Mercer gathered in the loose puck and lifted in her first goal of the afternoon.

Freshman Loren Gabel tallied her fourth of the season at 9:06, finishing off a pass across the crease from junior Genevieve Bannon. Senior captain Shannon MacAulay also assisted.

UNH got on the scoreboard at 14:04 with a goal by Jonna Curtis.

Mercer added two more in the middle frame to complete her second hat trick of the weekend and third career three-goal game.

The Knights' leading scorer connected for her second goal of the game when she slipped behind the UNH defense and knocked in a pass from senior Olivia Howe at 3:16 of the second period.

After The Wildcats' Jenna Rheault scored at 12:36 to make it 3-2, Mercer came through again to put the Green and Gold back on top by two. While on the power play, Mercer fired in a slap shot from the top of the circle at 13:42 for her 10th goal of the year and 37th career score. Defensemen, sophomore Savannah Harmon and senior Renata Fast assisted.

UNH, however, came back with Curtis's second goal of the game at 17:39 to cut the Knights' lead to 4-3 after 40 minutes.

Freshman Rhyen McGill came through with the game-winner at 11:05 of the third period, finishing off a give-and-go out of the corner with Bannon for her fifth goal of the season. Gabel also assisted.

Once again UNH fought back to make it a one-goal game at 18:09 with Amy Schlagel's goal.

Clarkson, however, closed out the win with Gabel's second of the day, an empty-net tally at 18:28.

Making her second career start in the Clarkson crease, junior McKenzie Johnson posted 19 saves.

The Knights were 1-of-2 on the power play, while UNH was 0-for-1.

Clarkson will take its perfect record into ECAC Hockey play next weekend when it opens conference action at Harvard on Friday. The Knights and Crimson shared the ECAC Hockey regular season title last year, but the Green and Gold claimed the number one seed in the playoffs by virtue of a two-game sweep of Harvard.