The Clarkson University Hockey team’s bid to move up in the ECAC Hockey standings and secure a home-ice berth for the upcoming league playoffs took a hit over the weekend as the Golden Knights suffered a weekend sweep against a pair of nationally-ranked rivals at Cheel Arena after 14th-ranked Rensselaer broke open a tight game to skate away with a 5-1 victory on Saturday night.

The Golden Knights, who fell to 7th-ranked Union 4-3 in overtime on Friday, take to the road next weekend playing at Harvard and Dartmouth to close out the regular season. Clarkson owns a 14-16-2 overall record and remains in seventh place in the conference with an 8-11-1 ECAC Hockey mark.

Five different players scored goals for Rensselaer as the Engineers broke open a tight game with a four-goal third-period effort.

Rensselaer, which put an end to a three-game losing skid, improves its record to 19-9-4 overall and moves into fifth place in the ECAC Hockey standings with an 11-8-1 league mark.

Tied 1-1 after two periods, Rensselaer pulled away in the final period against the Knights, scoring four unanswered goals. Johnny Rogic started the Engineers’ offensive outburst with when he swept in a rebound in front at 4:05 for his third goal of the year. Sophomore Greg Burgdoerfer followed at 11:52 when he tipped in a shot from the right boards by senior Joel Malchuk.

With less than two minutes to play, Rensselaer added two more goals to seal the road win. Freshman defenseman Guy Leboeuf gathered in a loose puck at center ice and flipped in a shot from the redline into an empty Clarkson net for his first career goal at 18:16. Alex Angers-Goulet closed out the scoring with an unassisted shorthanded tally with five seconds left to play.

Clarkson wasted little time to take advantage of the first power play of the game to grab the early lead in the first period. Just three seconds into a power play, senior Brandon DeFazio (Oakville, ONT) redirected a shot from the point by senior defenseman Bryan Rufenach (Barrie, ONT) for his team-high 12th goal of the season at 2:48. Freshman Jarrett Burton (Echo Bay, ONT) started the play, winning the faceoff in the right circle back to Rufenach at the point.

Rensselaer, which controlled the second period by outshooting the Green and Gold 12-4, tied the game early in the stanza. Marty O’Grady completed a strong sift for the Engineers when he knocked in a shot at the left side off a rebound by junior Josh Rabbani at 8:31.

Rensselaer outshot Clarkson 34-21. Junior Paul Karpowich posted 29 saves for the Knights. Allen York made 20 stops for the Engineers.

Clarkson was 1-of-6 on the power play, while Rensselaer was scoreless in its five man-advantage chances.