X

Knights men's hockey opens four-game home stand beginning with weekend series vs Sacred Heart

Posted 10/12/11

Athough the Clarkson University Hockey team did not skate away with a victory in its season-opening weekend out in Alaska, the Golden Knights did come away with several positives from the longest …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Knights men's hockey opens four-game home stand beginning with weekend series vs Sacred Heart

Posted

Athough the Clarkson University Hockey team did not skate away with a victory in its season-opening weekend out in Alaska, the Golden Knights did come away with several positives from the longest road trip in the program’s 90-year history.

In the first official games under new head coach Casey Jones, the Golden Knights displayed some offensive firepower in the 4-4 tie against Alaska-Anchorage and then battled highly regarded Alaska-Fairbanks in a 3-1 loss at the Kendall Classic in Anchorage.

After the lengthy journey back to Potsdam, the Green and Gold will look to build upon the positives from last weekend as they open a four-game home stand at Cheel Arena. Clarkson, led by senior captain Jake Morley (Ogdensburg, NY) and assistants, grad student Nick Tremblay (Candiac, QUE) and sophomore Ben Sexton (Kanata, ONT), will host Sacred Heart University this Friday and Saturday in a pair of 7:00 pm faceoffs.

All fans are asked to wear white to Saturday’s game against the Pioneers for WHITE OUT NIGHT.

Clarkson follows with a weekend series against American International College on October 21-22. The Knights then complete a six-game non-league stretch against Atlantic Hockey foes when they travel to Bentley College for a two-game set on October 28-29 before beginning ECAC Hockey action. Conference play begins for Clarkson on November 4 when Rensselaer visits Potsdam.

Competing against NCAA foes for the first time with the new systems implemented by Head Coach Casey Jones and assistants Phil Roy and Andy Jones, the Knights had their chances to win both games in Alaska. Playing their first game of the season early on Saturday morning (12:07 am EST), Clarkson held a 4-3 lead over Alaska-Anchorage before the host Seawolves manage to tie the game midway through the third period. Senior Julien Cayer (Longueuil, QUE) led the Knights’ offensive charge with his first career two-goal game and senior Paul Karpowich (Thunder Bay, ONT) posted 37 saves to highlight a strong effort by the Knights in their season-opener.

Later that day, Karpowich was solid in goal again for Clarkson with 32 saves, but a couple of tough-luck goals in the third period boosted Alaska Fairbanks to the victory in the second round of the classic. Tremblay scored the Knights’ lone goal of the game, a power-play marker, the third of the classic for the Green and Gold.

Guided by long-time Yale assistant coach C.J. Marottolo, now in his third year as head coach for Sacred Heart, the Pioneers suffered through a rough weekend out in Minneapolis. Fourteenth-ranked Minnesota dealt Sacred Heart a pair of shutouts, outscoring the Pioneers 15-0 (9-0, 6-0) in a two-game series at Mariucci Arena. In the midst of a five-game road trip, Sacred Heart plays nine of its first 11 games on the road. The Pioneers posted a 6-25-6 overall record in 2010-11 and placed 11th in Atlantic Hockey with a 5-16-6 league mark.

The Series:

Clarkson and Sacred Heart have played just twice with the Golden Knights gaining a 4-1 victory at Cheel Arena on November 1, 2003 and a 9-2 win in Milford, CT last season on December 12. Clarkson scored twice in the first period, added two more in the middle frame and closed out its most explosive outing in 11 years with five more goals in the third in last year’s win. Brandon DeFazio highlighted the offensive outburst with his second consecutive hat trick. Nick Tremblay (1-2) and Will Frederick (1-1) tallied three and two points, respectively. Jake Morley and Nik Pokulok also scored goals. Clarkson outshot the Pioneers 46-29 and went 3-of-8 on the power play. Paul Karpowich made 27 saves.

Knight Notes:

Clarkson will send out one of the youngest defensive units in the country this season. Three freshmen - Sam Labrecque, Kevin Tansey, James Howden - played on the Clarkson blueline this past weekend along with two sophomores and two juniors … Julien Cayer recorded his first multiple-goal game of his collegiate career with Clarkson’s first two scores in the 4-4 tie against UAA. He has 11 career goals through 76 games … Senior Louke Oakley (Whitby, ONT) was the only Knight to record at least one point in both games over the weekend, with a goal against UAA and an assist against UAF … The lone rookie forward to play for Clarkson at the Kendall Classic, freshman Joe Zarbo (Grand Island, NY), younger brother of sophomore Matt Zarbo, also recorded one goal (ppg) and one assist, both against UAA … Nick Tremblay also scored on the power play along with Cayer … Clarkson has struggled on the power play the past couple of seasons, but if early results from Alaska are any indications, the Knights could be much improved in that area. The Green and Gold went 3-of-12 (25%) with the man-advantage in the Kendall Classic … Paul Karpowich has started the last 25 games in the Clarkson goal and 92 during his career. He turned aside 69 of 76 shots he faced in the Kendall Classic. Karpowich is closing in on the all-time save record at Clarkson with 2,712 saves through 95 games … Dan Murphy holds the current mark for the Knights with 3,375 stops through 135 games from 1994-98 … The Knights have gone 12-6-2 in their first 20 official season openers at Cheel Arena … The Green and Gold have gone 5-0-1 in the opener at Cheel the past six seasons ... Last year, Clarkson recorded its only shutout of the season with a 4-0 blanking of Bowling Green (10/15) to open the home portion of the schedule ... The last time Clarkson lost its home season-opener was at the the start of the 2004-05 campaign with a 5-3 defeat to Niagara ... Five former Golden Knight all-stars - Grant Clitsome ’98 (Columbus), Erik Cole (Montreal), Kent Huskins ‘01 (St. Louis), Randy Jones (Winnipeg) and Willie Mitchell (Los Angeles) were on opening day National Hockey League rosters ... Five former Clarkson standouts are listed on American Hockey League (AHL) rosters - Mark Borowiecki (Binghamton), Brandon DeFazio ‘11 (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton), David Leggio ‘08 (Rochester), Shawn Weller (St. John’s). and Steve Zalewski ‘08 (Albany).