Seventh-ranked Clarkson used a four-goal first period to set the tone and then protected a lead late en route to a 5-3 ECAC Hockey victory at 16th-ranked Harvard on Saturday night in Cambridge, MA.

With the win, the Golden Knights' third straight over the Crimson, Clarkson improves to 16-5-2 overall and remains in first place in the ECAC Hockey standings with 20 points on a 10-3 league mark. The Green and Gold play at Cheel Arena next weekend hosting Arizona State in a pair of non-league games to open a four-game home stand.

In a penalty-filled game in which 16 minor penalties were whistled, Clarkson won the specialty-teams battle. Boasting the second-ranked penalty kill in the nation, the Knights shut down Harvard's top rated power play to just one man-advantage goal in nine chances, while the Green and Gold struck for two power-play tallies on seven opportunities.

The Crimson held a 37-32 shot advantage.

The offense came early and it came often in a six-goal opening frame.

Harvard got an early goal from Casey Dornbach and the Golden Knights trailed 1-0 less than five minutes in. However, Clarkson would use the power play to get even and take momentum.

With a long 5-3 man-advantage, the Golden Knights possessed the puck in the offensive zone. Captain Devin Brosseau (St. Lambert, QUE) took a pass from junior Zach Tsekos (Montreal, QUE) in the right circle and then fed junior defenseman Connor McCarthy (LaSalle, QUE) for a one-time shot from the left point and the game-tying goal at 7:30.

Clarkson would take the lead when sophomore Josh Dunne (O'Fallon, MO) went hard to the net and collected a pass in front from senior Haralds Egle (Liepaja, Latvia). Dunne tapped the puck low to the stick side of the goaltender and the Green and Gold had a one-goal advantage at 9:20.

That advantage would expand to 3-1 when Egle scored Clarkson's second power-play tally of the evening for his 100th career point on a snap shot from the left circle at 15:54 off a feed from Connor McCarthy. That was Egle's team-high 11th goal of the season and 27th point of the year.

Sophomore Adam Tisdale (Cochrane, ALB) scored his fifth of the season and third in the past four games just 31 seconds later when he controlled a pass at the top of the right circle. His wrist shot went over the glove of the goalie for a 4-1 lead at 16:15. Junior Jack Jacome (Caledon, ONT) assisted.

Harvard would get one back on a power play at 18:45 with a goal by Nick Abruzzese and the two teams headed to the intermission with Clarkson up by a 4-2 score.

In spite of an eight combined penalties in the second period, neither team was able to score and Clarkson took that two-goal edge into the third.

Harvard got a power-play goal at 3:02 of the final frame with Abruzzese connecting again to make the game a one-goal affair.

However, Frank Marotte (Longueuil, QUE), the Knights' graduate transfer in goal, made several key stops down the stretch in a 16-save third period effort to keep the Crimson at bay.

Then, with less than two minutes left and the Harvard goalie pulled, sophomore Chris Klack (Georgetown, ONT) blocked a shot, pushed the puck to center ice, forced the Crimson in their own end, stole a pass and shot into the empty net to make the it 5-3 with 1:24 remaining. It was Klack's third goal of the campaign.

Marotte stopped 34 of 37 shots on the evening.