With a stingy defensive performance and a balanced offensive effort the Clarkson University Women’s Hockey team skated to its third straight convincing victory over a traditional ECAC Hockey power, defeating archrival St. Lawrence University 3-1 before 461 fans at Cheel Arena on Friday afternoon.

The Golden Knights, who have won five of their last six games, improved their record to 21-6 overall and to 13-2 in ECAC Hockey. Clarkson entered the weekend tied for second in the standings, four points out of first. With seven games remaining in the regular season, the Knights play at St. Lawrence on Saturday in a 3:00 p.m. game at Appleton Arena to close out their weekend home-and-home series.

The Knights were dominant against their North Country neighbor, outshooting St. Lawrence (14-11-2. 9-5-1) 30-15 en route to their third victory of the season over the Saints. Juniors Brittany Styner (Calgary, ALB) and Jamie Lee Rattray (Kanata, ONT) led the offense with one goal and one assist apiece. Freshman defenseman Renata Fast (Burlington, ONT) also scored. Junior Erica Howe (Ottawa, ONT) posted 14 saves in picking up her 52nd career win in the Clarkson net. The Knights went 2-of-8 on the power play and killed off four of St. Lawrence’s five man-advantage chances.

Clarkson wasted little time in opening the scoring as the Knights’ top line connected just 44 seconds in. Styner took a pass out of the corner from Rattray and fired in a shot from the bottom of the left circle for her eighth goal of the season. Captain, junior Carly Mercer (Exeter, ONT) started the play and picked up an assist for her 100th career point.

The Knights continued to pressure in the period, outshooting the Saints 10-5 in the stanza, but had to settle for the 1-0 lead through the opening 20 minutes.

Clarkson showed no signs of letting up in the second period and made it 2-0 at 7:38. Rattray scored her team-high 17th goal of the season on a power-play blast from the top of the right circle with Styner and freshman defenseman Erin Ambrose (Keswick, ONT) assisting.

St. Lawrence answered back late in the period with a power-play tally from Brooke Fernandez at 18:27 to make it a 2-1 game through forty minutes of play.

Early in the final frame, Clarkson regained its two-goal lead by taking advantage of another St. Lawrence penalty. At 3:28, Fast fired in a shot from the right circle for her second goal of the season to give the Knights a 3-1 lead. Juniors Shelby Nisbet (Wiseton, SASK) and defenseman Vanessa Plant (Riviere-du-Loup, QUE) assisted.

The Saints had their goaltender, Carmen MacDonald, out of the net in favor for the extra skater for the final 3:39, but failed to get another goal past Howe. MacDonald finished with 27 saves.

Clarkson hosted a fundraiser at Friday's game, with all proceeds from ticket sales and donations going to "Lending Hands" in Potsdam. Both Clarkson President Tony Collins and St. Lawrence President Bill Fox participated in a shooting contest at the end of the second period to promote the event.