BOSTON — It wasn't giving up three goals in the first period that was the worst news for the Clarkson University men's hockey team Friday night.

Yes, the 16th-ranked Golden Knights fell in a big hole early and wound up losing 5-1 to Harvard University in an ECAC Hockey contest at the Bright Hockey Center.

But Clarkson (2-3-2 overall, 1-2 ECAC Hockey) added to its list of key players injured as junior Matt Beca, the only member of the team voted onto the all-ECAC Hockey preseason team, suffered an undisclosed injury and will miss tonight's game at Dartmouth.

Clarkson is already without co-captain Phil Paquet, one of the team's top defensemen, and before Beca's injury, the team was also missing leading forward Chris D'Alvise and freshman Julien Cayer to injury.

"It's tough right now," said Clarkson coach George Roll. "(Beca) won't be in the lineup tomorrow. That's part of the problem with us not scoring goals, but we have to find a way. I was happy with our effort. The game was a lot closer than the score indicated."

Harvard (3-2) had lost six straight games to the Golden Knights, but after scoring three goals in a span of 6 minutes, 34 seconds of the first period, the Crimson was able to snap the streak.

Michael Del Mauro started the run with a wrist shot from the circle at 9:46 of the first period. Nick Coskren tipped in a shot for a power-play goal at 14:34, and Joe Smith added another goal at 16:30.

Harvard's three goals came despite Clarkson outshooting the Crimson 8-6 in the period. Lauri Tuohimaa scored Clarkson's goal with 35 seconds left in the period.

"In the first two periods we played very well," Roll said. "We made a couple mistakes and it cost us goals, but I was happy with our effort. We had our chances to score, but couldn't find the back of the net."

Harvard added another goal from Coskren in the second period, and Matt McCollem scored in the third period for the Crimson.