It was a frustrating night in Troy, NY for the Clarkson University Hockey team in its opening ECACHL game as the Golden Knights lost to Rensselaer 5-3 before 4,980 fans at Houston Field House on Friday.

 

Rensselaer (5-2-1, 1-0-0) made the most of its power-play opportunities, scoring five times with the man-advantage to earn its third straight victory over the Green and Gold, while Clarkson was 1-of-9 on the power play.

 

“We beat ourselves tonight,” stated Clarkson head coach George Roll. “We made a lot of bad decisions on penalties. We know they are going to call it tight, we just have to be more disciplined. We know with RPI that we have to stay out of the box. Their power play was awfully good."

 

The Engineers wasted little time in finding the back of the net, scoring just 20 seconds after the opening faceoff. Clarkson battled right back, however, with its own power-play tally as senior captain Mac Faulkner (King City, ONT) scored his fifth goal of the season at 48 seconds. Rensselaer’s second goal came with just five seconds left in a five-minute major penalty to the Knights, making it 2-1 at 14:27. The Engineers went on top 4-1 with goals at 12:57 and 14:34 of the second.

 

Clarkson rallied midway through the third with a pair of goals 15 seconds apart to close the gap to 4-3. Sophomore Brodie Rutherglen (Trail, BC) scored his third of the season at 10:52, followed by junior Jeff Genovy’s (Kalamazoo, MI) first of the year at 11:07.

“I give our guys a lot of credit,” said Roll. “We showed a lot of heart tonight. I thought the first period we struggled, but the next two we dominated and out shot them pretty decisively. I thought their kid played great tonight in net. We had so many grade A chances and he made the huge saves when they needed them.”

 

Four late penalties hindered the Knights’ efforts to tie the game and RPI sealed the win with an empty-net power-play tally with 22 seconds left.

 

Clarkson out shot Rensselaer, 40-37. Freshman David Leggio (Buffalo, NY) started in the Knights’ net and made 22 saves, including 17 stops in the first period, before leaving after the Engineers’ fourth goal. Junior Dustin Traylen (Kirkland, QUE) came on in relief and finished with 10 saves. Andrew Martin made 37 saves, including 20 in the middle frame, for Rensselaer.

 

“We are disappointed, but on the other hand if we continue to work in this direction we will be fine,” remarked Roll.

 

Clarkson, at 2-5 overall and 0-1-0 in the ECACHL, plays at Union on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. The Dutchmen defeated St. Lawrence, 6-5, on Friday.