A strong performance in the opening game of the year helped the Clarkson University Women's Hockey team skate to a 4-0 victory over rival St. Lawrence on Friday night at Cheel Arena.

The Golden Knights, who are ranked fifth in the country, will play St. Lawrence (0-2-1) at Appleton Arena in Canton Saturday afternoon at 3:00 p.m.

"Tonight was a great way to start the season for us," said Clarkson Head Coach Matt Desrosiers. "Although we were a little sloppy at the beginning of the game that led to some quality scoring chances for St. Lawrence, we were able to come out of the first period up a goal thanks to some great saves made by Shea (Tiley). She played fantastic tonight and really kept us in the game long enough for us to get our legs underneath us. Once we started managing the puck better and getting our shots through on net we settled in and started to play our game. We also started being a lot more aggressive defensively which really helped limit their chances but also allowed us to transition to offense well. All in all I thought it was a good effort by our players and a game that we can take a lot from moving forward."

In the first period, it was St. Lawrence who took the majority of shots, but Clarkson finished the period with a 1-0 lead. The opening goal of the season for the Green and Gold came at 11:14 when junior Cayley Mercer's pass from behind the net found senior assistant captain Olivia Howe in the crease, with Howe burying it into the St. Lawrence net.

Clarkson doubled its advantage at 10:48 on a great individual effort by freshman Loren Gabel. Sophomore Savannah Harmon passed to Gabel at the half-way line and then Gabel used her speed to slice through the Saints' defense and scored her first collegeiate goal.

The Golden Knights added two insurance goals in the third period. First, with an empty St. Lawrence net, freshman Emma Keenan poked the puck to Howe who fed Mercer for an easy finish into the vacated net. Then, with three minutes remaining, Clarkson put together a beautiful sequence of passes for its fourth goal. Freshman Kelly Mariani sent a pass to junior Genevieve Bannon on the right wing who threaded a pass directly into the path of a streaking Harmon who tapped home on the back post.

Clarkson finished with a 36-23 advantage in shots. The Golden Knights could not score on either of their power plays, but did kill off the only extra-man opportunity for the Saints.

Shea Tiley made 23 saves for Clarkson to record her tenth shutout of her career. The win also gives Clarkson a 18-17-4 edge in the all-time series between the two teams, with Clarkson holding a 9-0-2 record in the last 11 meetings in Cheel Arena.

The two teams will meet again tomorrow at 3:00 pm with the action moving to Canton.