Winners of two of its last three games, the Clarkson University Hockey team heads into the home stretch of the regular season with some momentum as it looks to lock up a home-ice berth in the upcoming ECAC Hockey playoffs. The Golden Knights improved their overall record to .500 and moved into seventh place in the league standings with a thrilling 2-1 victory over archrival St. Lawrence at Appleton Arena on Tuesday night.

Guided by eighth-year head coach George Roll, associate coach Greg Drechsel and assistant coach Chris Rogles, the Knights stand at 14-14-2 overall and hold an 8-9-1 league mark. Clarkson will need to continue to play at its top level as the Knights face three of the Top 16 teams in the country over the final four games.

In its final home games of the regular season, the Green and Gold host Capital District foes Union and Rensselaer this weekend at Cheel Arena. The Knights battle the seventh-ranked Dutchmen at 7:00 p.m. on Friday night, and face off against the 14th-ranked Engineers in a 7:00 p.m. game on Saturday, which is also Clarkson’s Senior Night. The 34-game slate comes to a close for Clarkson next weekend in New England when the Knights play at Harvard and 16th-ranked Dartmouth.

Clarkson’s Class of 2011 – Eric Daddario (Medford, MA), Brandon DeFazio (Oakville, ONT), Scott Freeman (Whitby, ONT), Tom Pizzo (Rochester, N), Dan Reed (Walworth, NY), Bryan Rufenach (Barrie, ONT) and Lauri Tuohimaa (Helsinki, Finland) will make their final regular-season appearance before the home crowd this weekend. Over their four-year careers, the Knights’ seniors have compiled 55 victories, participated in one NCAA Tournament (2008), and played a role in Clarkson winning the 2007-08 ECAC Hockey regular season title. The Class of 2011 became the Knights’ first senior class in 10 years to defeat St. Lawrence three times in one season with this past Tuesday’s victory in Canton.

With a smart, hard-working effort, a pair of timely goals and a strong outing in the crease by junior Paul Karpowich (Thunder Bay, ONT) on Tuesday, Clarkson was able to gain the ECAC Hockey regular-season series sweep over St. Lawrence for the first time since the 2006-07 campaign. The Knights, who knocked off their Route 11 neighbors in Potsdam 3-1 on November 20 in conference action, also defeated the Saints in a non-league affair in Lake Placid, 2-1 in overtime on October 30.

Karpowich was stellar in goal with a 37-save effort and Freeman and junior Louke Oakley (Whitby, ONT) provided the goals as the Knights gained their third win in one season over St. Lawrence for the first time since the 2001-02 season.

Through 29 starts this season, Karpowich posts a .912 save percentage, a 3.02 goals against average and a 14-13-2 record, including one shutout.

Three players lead a balanced scoring effort for the Knights with 20 points each. DeFazio has scored a team-high 11 goals to go along with nine assists. Junior Nick Tremblay (Candiac, QUE) has chipped in nine goals and 11 assists, while junior Jake Morley (Ogdensburg, NY) leads the team in assists with 15, while also scoring five goals. Rookie Allan McPherson (Kinburn, ONT) leads a talented freshman class with 19 points (8-11).

One of the top teams in the nation throughout the season, Union College is playing its best hockey down the stretch. The Dutchmen, guided by eighth-year head coach Nate Leaman, are riding a seven-game win streak and are 11-1 in league play during the New Year. Ranked seventh in the nation, Union has posted the most wins in the country with a 22-7-3 overall record. The Dutchmen took over the top spot in the ECAC Hockey standings with a 14-3-1 league mark. Union, which last lost on January 21 with a 4-1 setback at Dartmouth, has outscored its opponents 29-14 during its current winning streak. Last weekend in Schenectady, the Dutchmen shutout Cornell 4-0, and defeated Colgate 6-3.

Rensselaer enters the North Country looking to get back on the winning track after suffering a pair of agonizing overtime losses at home this past weekend. A seven-game unbeaten stretch (6-0-1) came to an end for the Engineers last Friday when Colgate stunned the home team 2-1 in extra play at Houston Field House. On Saturday, RPI fell again in overtime, losing to Cornell 3-2. Guided by fifth-year head coach Seth Appert, the Engineers are ranked 14th in the national polls with an 18-8-4 overall record. RPI holds down fifth place in the conference with a 10-7-1 mark. 

The Series:

Clarkson leads the all-time series against Union, which began with a 5-1 Dutchmen win in Schenectady on January 23, 1925, 27-16-5. Union, however, is on its longest winning streak in the rivalry with six straight victories and has outscored the Green and Gold 38-10 during the stretch, including 19-3 over the past two games. The Dutchmen, who are 6-3-1 over the last 10 meetings, handed the Knights one of their worst losses in the program’s history with an 11-2 defeat at Messa Rink on February 5, 2010 and followed that up with an 8-1 triumph in Schenectady on January 8. Union also won 5-1 in Potsdam last season on November 14, 2009. The Knights’ last win in the series was a 4-3 overtime victory at Cheel Arena on January 23, 2009. Clarkson is 14-4-1 all-time at Cheel against the Dutchmen.

Bryan Rufenach (2-3) leads the Green and Gold in scoring against the Dutchmen with five points in eight games. Brandon DeFazio has tallied a team-high three goals against Union through eight games. Paul Karpowich has played 211 minutes through five games against the Dutchmen and posts a .847 save percentage, a 5.97 GAA and a 0-4 record. George Roll is 10-11-1 against the Dutchmen, while Union head coach Late Leaman owns an 11-10-1 marks in the series.

In a heated rivalry which dates back to the 1924-25 campaign, Clarkson leads the overall series against Rensselaer 81-43-8. The Knights have won five of the last seven meetings against RPI and handed the Engineers their only home loss of the season with a 3-2 overtime triumph at Houston Field House on January 7. Rensselaer swept the regular-season series from Clarkson for the first time since 2004-05 by winning both games last year, 5-2 in Potsdam (11/13/09) and 2-1 in Troy (2/6/10). Clarkson is 11-5-3 against RPI at Cheel Arena.

Nick Tremblay has a have a team-high four points each against RPI with one goal and three assists through five games. Corey Tamblyn has scored a team-high three goals through three games in the series. Paul Karpowich is 3-2 against RPI with a .906 save percentage and a 2.80 GAA. George Roll is 6-7-2 against Rensselaer. Engineers’ head coach Seth Appert is 2-6-1 in the series.

Knight Notes:

Three of the Knights’ final four games are against teams ranked among the top 16 in the country. Clarkson is 2-6 this season against Top-20 ranked foes. The Knights defeated fourth-ranked St. Cloud State (6-2 on 10/9) and #9-ranked Rensselaer (3-2ot on 1/7), and lost once to #18 Cornell (6-1 on 11/6), and #15 Union (8-1 on 1/8), and twice to #5 Minnesota-Duluth (4-1 and 4-2 on 1/3-4) and #1/2 Yale (5-2 and 6-3 on 1/21 and 2/12) ... Allan McPherson is fourth on the Knights’ scoring charts with 19 points, one point out of a tie for the Clarkson scoring lead. He has tallied eight goals and 11 assists through 29 games for the most points by a Clarkson freshman since Matt Beca ‘10 tallied 27 points (10-17) through 38 games of his rookie campaign in 2006-07 ... Brandon DeFazio (11-9), Nick Tremblay (9-11) and Jake Morley (5-15) lead the Green and Gold in scoring with 20 points each ... Scott Freeman has a three-game scoring streak with three goals and one assist ... After missing the previous two games with an injury, Louke Oakley tallied the game-winning goal in the 2-1 victory at St. Lawrence ... Julien Cayer has recorded five (2-3) of his seven points this season over the past nine games ... Tom Pizzo has collected all three of his points (1-2) this season over the past three games ... After recording just one assist last year in his rookie campaign, Adam Pawlick has set up six goals this year, and has had one assist in each of the past two games ... Paul Karpowich has posted 16 games with 30-or-more saves this season ... The Knights are 10-0-1 when leading after the second period, but 0-14-0 when trailing after the opening 20 minutes.

Alumni Notes:

Two-time All-American forward and 1997 Hobey Baker Award Finalist

Todd White ‘97 is the latest Golden Knight named to ECAC Hockey’s Top 50 All-Time Team. The 1997 ECAC Hockey Player of the Year, White ranks fourth on Clarkson’s all-time scoring chart with 198 points (90-108) through 143 career games (1993-97). White joins Brian Muller ‘95, Dave Fretz ’85 Dave Taylor ’77 and Bill Blackwood ’78 currently named to the all-star team. More former Clarkson players are expected to be added as the league announces installments until the conference championship tournament in mid-March.