An early deficit was quickly turned around as the third-ranked Clarkson University Women's Hockey team clinched the ECAC Hockey regular season title with a 5-2 victory at Colgate on Friday night.

Clarkson is now 24-4-5 overall this season and 16-1-2 in conference. Colgate falls to 22-8-3- overall and 13-7-1 in ECAC Hockey.

"I thought once we got our legs under us tonight we played a great game," said Head Coach Matt Desrosiers. "Colgate pressed us early and got that quick goal, but the team did a great job remaining focused on the game plan and executing. There are definitely a lot of positives we can take from tonight's game. I'm really proud of the effort the team put forth tonight and this entire season and am really happy to see them rewarded with winning the regular season title."

The Raiders jumped out to a 1-0 lead just 2:06 into the contest when Megan Sullivan scored an unassisted goal. After that though, it was all one-way traffic for Clarkson. The Golden Knights tied the game at 16:46 in the first when Michaela Pejzlova scored in her first game back from playing for her native Czech Republic national team. Loren Gabel and co-captain Cayley Mercer had assists on the goal.

The second period was where Clarkson separated itself from Colgate. The Green and Gold took the lead 3:47 into the frame when Kelly Mariani scored. Jessica Gillham and Amanda Titus had the assists. Clarkson added a third goal at 14:13 as Mercer tallied her second short-handed goal of the season. Assistant captain Genevieve Bannon set her up for the goal.

In the third, Clarkson extended its lead, allowing the Golden Knights to coast to the finish. Cassidy Vinkle scored at 12:26 with Taylor Turnquist notching the assist. Just 4:08 later, Clarkson had another goal with Mercer scoring on an empty net. Gabel picked up her second assist of the game. Colgate got one goal back at 17:45 when Bailey Larson scored on a power-play, but the goal was too little and too late for Colgate.

Clarkson finished with a 31-25 advantage in shots. The Green and Gold failed to score on all five of their power-plays while Colgate had one power-play goal in four extra man opportunities. Shea Tiley finished with 23 saves for Clarkson while Julia Vandyk made 26 stops for Colgate.

Clarkson will close out the regular season with a 3:00 pm game against Cornell tomorrow.