After traveling approximately 7,000 miles during a nine-game road trip, the Clarkson University Hockey team finally returns to Cheel Arena for its first home game in 53 days. Guided by first-year head coach Casey Jones and assistants Phil Roy’00 and Andy Jones, the Golden Knights return to ECAC Hockey action this weekend, hosting Yale and Brown. Both games on Friday and Saturday are 7:00 p.m. faceoffs.

Led by senior captain Jake Morley (Ogdensburg, NY) and assistant captains, grad student Nick Tremblay (Candiac, QUE) and sophomore Ben Sexton (Kanata, ONT), Clarkson owns a 9-10-4 overall record and is tied for ninth-place in the ECAC Hockey standings with a 3-4-2 league mark.

The longest stretch of games away from Potsdam in 71 years for Clarkson came to a close this past Saturday with the Knights falling to 19th-ranked University of North Dakota 3-1 in the U.S. College Hockey Classic played in downtown Winnipeg, MB. The Green and Gold closed out the 2011 portion of the schedule with a pair of losses at the Florida College Classic, losing to Maine (6-1) and Cornell (5-3) at Germain Arena in Estero, FL on December 29-30.

Clarkson, which went 2-6-1 during the road trip, will look to snap a four-game losing skid when it hosts defending ECAC Hockey Tournament champion Yale on Friday in its first game back in Potsdam since defeating Dartmouth 4-0 on November 19. In their final conference game before the break, the Green and Gold skated by St. Lawrence 5-3 at Appleton Arena in Canton on December 6 for its last victory.

The Knights opened the New Year with an impressive first-period effort against North Dakota on Saturday in central Canada, taking a 1-0 lead over UND before an enthusiastic pro-North Dakota crowd of 7,075 at the MTS Centre. After senior Julien Cayer’s (Longueuil, QUE) goal, however, Clarkson was not able to score again, and UND took control on the scoreboard in the second period with a pair of goals. North Dakota sealed the non-league victory with a late third-period tally.

A pair of seniors lead a balanced scoring attacked for the Knights. Louke Oakley (Whitby, ONT) tops the Clarkson scoring charts with 18 points on eight goals and 10 assists. Tremblay follows with 16 points, including a team-high nine goals. Seven players post double figures in the points column for Clarkson and 16 players have tallied at least one goal.

Senior goaltender Paul Karpowich was back in action this past Saturday after missing the Florida Tournament with an illness, and posted 32 saves against North Dakota to earn the game’s Third Star. Playing in 21 games, Karpowich rates as one of the top goaltenders in Division I, boasting the nation’s best save percentage (.937). He ranks fifth in goals against average (1.98) and is tied for second in the country in shutouts (5).

Yale owns an 8-6-1 overall record and is tied for fifth in the conference standings with a 5-3 ECAC Hockey mark. Guided by sixth-year head coach Keith Allain, the Bulldogs have gone 2-1 in the New Year. Yale split a weekend series at Ingalls Rink in New Haven, falling to Quinnipiac 2-1 on Friday before skating past Princeton 6-2 on Saturday. The Bulldogs are 3-3 on the road.

Just one point behind Clarkson in the league standings with a game in hand on the Knights entering Friday’s contest at St. Lawrence, Brown owns a 6-7-2 overall record and a 3-4-1 ECAC Hockey mark. The Bears, guided by third-year head coach Brendan Whittet, have posted some impressive wins this year and are 3-1-1 in the last five games. Brown gained one point at home over the weekend, losing 3-2 in overtime to Princeton and tying Quinnipiac 2-2 at Meehan Auditorium in Providence.

The Series:

Clarkson leads the all-time series against Yale, which began in 1929-30, 68-34-4. The Bulldogs, however, have won six of the last seven meetings, including the last four. Yale swept the Knights last year, winning 5-2 in New Haven on January 21 and 6-3 in Potsdam on February 12. The Bulldogs also swept the Golden Knights during the 2009-10 campaign, winning 3-2 at Cheel (1/22/10) and 5-4 in overtime at Ingalls Rink (2/20/10). Clarkson’s last win in the series was a 4-3 triumph in New Haven on January 16, 2009. The Knights are 16-6 against Yale at Cheel Arena, but the Bulldogs have won the last three seasons in Potsdam.

Nick Trembaly (1-3) and Corey Tamblyn (0-4) have a team-high four points against Yale. Julien Cayer has scored a team-high three goals against the Bulldogs. Paul Karpowich posts a .893 save percentage, a 4.42 GAA and a 0-5 mark in the series. Richie LaVeau is 1-0 against the Bulldogs with a .906 save percentage and a 3.00 goals against average.

Clarkson leads Brown in their all-time series, which began in 1953, by a commanding 57-15-6 margin. The Knights, who have won nine of the last 11 meetings, snapped a two-game losing skid in the series with a 3-1 victory over the Bears in Providence on January 22, 2011. Clarkson also defeated Brown 4-1 in Potsdam on February 11. The Bears swept two games from the Green and Gold in 2009-10 by 3-2 scores, winning at Cheel Arena (1/23/10) and at Meehan Auditorium (2/19/10). The Knights are 18-4-3 all-time against Brown at Cheel Arena.

Nick Tremblay has a team-high four points against Brown with two goals and two assists through six games. Paul Karpowich posts a .926 save percentage, a 2.29 GAA and a 4-2 mark through 315 minutes in six games of the series.

Knight Notes:

After the just completed nine-game road trip, the Knights will play their next three games at Cheel. Over the final 13 games of the regular season, Clarkson will have seven home dates in Potsdam … Clarkson is 6-2 at Cheel and has outscored its opponents 29-11 in the first eight home games … The Knights went 2-6-1 on the recent road trip. Overall, the Knights are 3-2-4 on opponents’ home ice … Neutral ice has been the big difference in Clarkson’s record as the Green and Gold were 0-6. Clarkson played at neutral sites in Alaska, Portland, ME, Lake Placid, Florida and Winnipeg … Clarkson closed out the non-league portion of the regular season with a 6-6-2 mark. The Knights were 6-0-1 vs. Atlantic Hockey; 0-1-1 vs. WCHA; 0-2 vs. Hockey East; 0-1 vs. CCHA; and 0-2 vs. ECAC teams in non-conference action … Senior Corey Tamblyn (Bobcaygeon, ONT) has been among the Knights’ most productive forwards recently with five points (2-3) over the past five games. He is Clarkson’s third-leading scorer with 14 points (7-7). Tamblyn tallied 12 points (4-8) in 36 games last year ...With the return of Ben Sexton and Paul Karpowich to the lineup, Clarkson is the healthiest its been since mid-October ... After missing the previous 12 games with an injury Sexton was impressive in his return at the Florida College Classic. Against Cornell, on December 30, the Knights’ assistant captain recorded his first career two-goal game. Sexton was named to the Florida College Classic All-Tournament Team. He connected for a power-play goal giving him a team-high four for the year. Sexton, a 2009, 7th-round draft choice of Boston, has 11 points on five goals and six assists through 11 games. Eight of Sexton’s 11 points have come on the power play. With Sexton in the lineup through the season’s first eight games, Clarkson’s power-play was clicking at .27% (12-44). From November 4 through December 10 when he was out of the lineup, the Knights scored just four times on the man-advantage in 50 chances (.08%) … For the season, Clarkson is 18-110, .16.4% on the power play ... For the first time since November 26, 2010, Karpowich was not the starting goaltender in the Clarkson crease. He missed the Florida tournament with an illness, halting his streak of consecutive starts at 43. He returned to action against North Dakota and made 32 saves on 35 UND shots. The 2008 St. Louis Blues NHL Draft choice (7th rd, 185) is ranked among the national leaders in save percentage - .937 (1st) and goals against average -1.98 (5th). With Karpowich playing every minute in the Knights’ crease through the first 20 games, Clarkson posted five shutouts, the most for the Green and Gold since the 2007-08 campaign when the team notched six whitewashes. Karpowich, who was named ECAC Hockey/Fischer Hockey Goaltender of the Month for October, is closing in on the all-time save record at Clarkson with 3,267 through 114 games. The Knights’ all-time record is 3,375 saves by Dan Murphy ’98 in 135 games from 1994-98. Karpowich was named the goaltender on INSIDECOLLEGEHOCKEY.com’s FIRST HALF ALL-ECAC HOCKEY TEAM …With three freshmen, two sophomores and two juniors on the blueline, Clarkson is allowing only 2.39 goals per game, 11th-best in the NCAA … Rookie defenseman Kevin Tansey (Hammond, ONT) leads the Green and Gold in plus/minus at +10 … The Knights are 8-2-1 when scoring first and 9-0-2 when leading after 40 minutes ... Former Clarkson All-Star, Steve Zalewski '08 is back in the National Hockey League after recently being called up to the NHL by the New Jersey Devils. He has played in two games through January 9 with the Devils. Zalewski skated in three NHL games with the San Jose Sharks during the 2009-10 campaign.