A solid third-period effort by the Clarkson University Hockey team wasn’t enough to make up for a slow start and a bad second period as the Golden Knights lost to St. Lawrence 5-1 in non-league action before 2,800 fans at Appleton Arena in Canton, NY on Saturday night.

Clarkson, which falls 3-12-4 overall, and St. Lawrence (9-9-1) will face off again in another non-league contest on Sunday at Cheel Arena in a 4:00 p.m. game to be televised live nationally by ESPNU.

St. Lawrence came out in full force to start the first of four meetings this season between the North Country rivals and took a 3-0 lead before the game was eight minutes old. Casey Parenteau opened the scoring at 2:57 and added another at 5:42. Jeff Caister put the Saints on the scoreboard again at 7:25.

The Knights had little opportunity to get back in the game during the second period as they were put in shorthanded situations five times during the middle frame. St. Lawrence dominated the period out shooting the Green and Gold 22-2 over the second 20-minute stanza. The Saints connected on the power play at 3:48 with Shawn Fensel putting the home team on top 4-0.

Clarkson started the third period with an early power play and broke the Saints’ shutout bid when junior Matt Beca (Mississauga, ONT)  tallied his fourth goal of the year at 3:41 with sophomore Scott Freeman (Whitby, ONT) and freshman Louke Oakley (Whitby, ONT) assisting. St. Lawrence, however, regained the four-goal advantage with Jared Keller’s goal at 7:14.

St. Lawrence out shot the Knights 41-14. Freshman Paul Karpowich (Thunder Bay, ONT) started in goal for Clarkson and made 12 saves on 16 shots before leaving after the Saints’ fourth goal. Classmate Richie LaVeau (Arlington Heights, ILL) played the final 36 minutes in the Knights’ goal and made 24 saves.

Clarkson finished 1-of-4 on the power play, while St. Lawrence was 1-of-7 with the man-advantage.