Senior Brandon DeFazio (Oakville, ONT) netted his first career hat trick to lift the Clarkson University Hockey team to a 5-3 victory over Quinnipiac at TD Bank SportsCenter in Hamden, CT on Saturday night to complete a weekend sweep on the road in ECAC Hockey action, the Golden Knights' first league sweep outside of Potsdam since January 16-17, 2009.

The Knights, who also defeated Princeton 5-3 in New Jersey on Friday, have won five of their last six games to improve their record to 9-5-2 overall, equaling last year’s win total. Clarkson, which has won four straight in the league, owns a 4-2-1 ECAC Hockey mark.

The Knights, who held a 2-0 first-period lead, had to overcome a rash of penalties in the second and into the third to gain the win. The Bobcats (7-8-1, 3-5-1), who enjoyed five straight power plays over the final 40 minutes tied the game 2-2 with a man-advantage goal by Jeremy Langlois 67 seconds into the third period. Just 48 seconds later the Green and Gold regained the lead when DeFazio connected off assists from linemates junior Louke Oakley (Whitby, ONT) and senior Scott Freeman (Whitby, ONT). DeFazio made it 4-2 with his second goal at 8:24 with Tamblyn assisting.

Quinnipiac cut the Knights’ lead to one with another power-play goal when Zach Davies scored at 12:17.

Once again, however, DeFazio came through with a key goal to complete Clarkson’s first hat trick in over two years. With 4:41 remaining in regulation, DeFazio was all alone in front and knocked in a rebound off a shot by Oakley to make it 5-3. Freeman also picked his second assist on the goal.

The Knights came out with a strong first-period effort and took a 2-0 lead on goals by freshman Allan McPherson (Kinburn, ONT), at 10:44, and senior defenseman Bryan Rufenach (Barrie, ONT), at 17:42. Freshman Matt Zarbo (Grand Island, NY) assisted on both goals.

Quinnipiac, benefiting from four straight power plays, controlled the second period out shooting the Knights 18-8 in the stanza. Yuri Bouharevich started the Bobcats scoring at 11:31.

The Bobcats outshot Clarkson 40-27. Junior Paul Karpowich (Thunder Bay, ONT) posted his 10th 30-save outing of the season with 37 stops, including 17 in the middle frame. Quinnipiac was 2-of-6 on the power play while the Knights fail to score on their only man-advantage opportunity of the night.

Clarkson closes out the 2010 portion of schedule with a non-league game at Sacred Heart next Sunday afternoon.