TROY, N.Y. - The Clarkson University men's hockey team scored twice in the first period and the No. 8/9 Golden Knights held off Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) 2-1 in an ECAC Hockey game in front of 3,426 fans at the Houston Field House. Clarkson improves to 7-2-1 overall and 2-0-0 in ECAC Hockey, while the Engineers drop to 4-4-0 and 2-2-0.

The Golden Knights needed just 1:29 to take the lead as senior forward Haralds Egle buried a rebound of a Greg Moro point shot. Rensselaer's Owen Savory made the initial save, but Egle collected the puck and fired it into the open side for his third of the season.
 
Clarkson doubled its advantage at 12:03 when Devin Brosseau scored on a rebound from the right circle. Moro, a defenseman, started the play with a feed to fellow blueliner Jordan Schneider, whose shot from the top of the left circle was stopped by Savory. The puck caromed to Brosseau, who found the back of the net for his second point of the game.

The Engineers pulled to within a goal when freshman Tristan Ashbrook slid the puck under Clarkson netminder Frank Marotte from the bottom of the left faceoff circle at 16:47 of the second period. Rensselaer began controlling the play eight minutes into the frame and had four solid chances to get its first goal beginning at that point. Ottoville Leppanen and Cory Babichuk broke in on a 2-on-1, Chase Zieky had a strong bid stopped and Jake Marrello saw two quality chances turned away by Marotte. RPI's sustained pressure paid off with Ashbrook earning the first of his career when he swept in a pass from behind the net by defenseman Kyle Hallbauer. Mike Gornall also had an assist, which he earned by setting up a shot by Ashbrook that was saved.

Rensselaer continued to apply pressure throughout the third period, but Marotte stopped each of the five shots he saw to finish with 18 saves. Savory made four third period saves and had a game total of 25, including 11 in the first period.

The Engineers travel to Princeton University for an ECAC Hockey game on Friday (7pm), while Clarkson hosts nationally-ranked Cornell University in a league contest on Friday (7pm).