TROY, N.Y. – Max Smolinski found his way in front of the net, scoring on a feed from John Beaton in overtime as the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's hockey team defeated the Clarkson Golden Knights by a final score of 3-2 at the Houston Field House Friday night. With the win, RPI improves to 9-14-1 overall and 4-9-0 in ECAC Hockey, while Clarkson falls to 9-14-1 and 4-9-0 in ECAC Hockey play.
 
Both sides played to a scoreless first period before the gates opened in the second. Clarkson opened the coring at the 4:21 mark of the second period, with Tristan Sarsland netting a wrist shot perfectly into the upper right corner of the net to five the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead.
 
Just 34 seconds later, RPI took their shot as Altti Nykanen scored after picking up a loose puck, skating in toward the net, and snapping off a wrist shot that sailed over the left shoulder of Clarkson goaltender Ethan Haider to tie the game at 1-1. Danny Ciccarello and Jack Agnew were given assists on the play.
 
Clarkson went into the third period with a lead however, as they scored with just 18 seconds remaining thanks to a goal from Ryan Taylor from Mathieu Gosselin and Ayrton Martino that gave the Golden Knights a 2-1 lead.
 
The Engineers got their break midway through the third period, as Clarkson drew a game misconduct resulting in a five minute power play for the Engineers. At the 9:54 mark, Austin Heidemann collected the game-tying goal thanks to some moves from Sutter Muzzatti over the blue line before dishing to Heidemann on a rush to the net to make things all square at two goals apiece. Smolinski was credited with the secondary helper.
 
As he helped with the game-tying goal, Smolinski was the guy in the overtime period to seal the deal for RPI. With the third period wrapping up in a 2-2 tie, things moved to the extra time and to 3-on-3 play. RPI controlled the puck on offense for a majority of the extra session before Beaton picked up the puck along the board. As he turned and found nobody, he searched and found Smolinski cutting in front of the net to the back post for the winning strike.
 
Jack Watson made 20 saves on the evening for RPI, while Haider made 22 stops for Clarkson in the loss.
 
The Engineers return to the ice tomorrow, Saturday, January 21 in Houston Field House, as they play host to St. Lawrence at 7 p.m.