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With a dreadful month of November behind them, the Clarkson University Hockey team is hoping the start of December will bring good cheer to the beleaguered program. The Golden Knights suffered through their worst month of play in recent memory with just a 1-6-1 mark over the previous 30 days. Clarkson enters the final month of 2008 with a 2-7-3 overall record. The Green and Gold are in a four-way tie for ninth place in the ECAC Hockey standings with a 1-5 conference mark.
A lengthy losing skid came to a halt for Clarkson with Saturday’s non-league tie against Canisius College, but the Golden Knights, led by senior co-captains Tyrell Mason (Dawson Creek, BC) and Phil Paquet (Quebec City, QUE) will find a daunting challenge in looking to break out of a seven-game winless slide (0-6-1) this weekend. Clarkson, guided by sixth-year head coach George Roll, associate coach Greg Drechsel and assistant coach Jean-Francois Houle, will take to the road to faceoff at Cornell and Colgate. Annually their toughest road trip, the Green and Gold have not swept the Central NY weekend series since the end of the 1996-97 regular season. Clarkson plays the Big Red on Friday at 7:00 p.m. at Lynah Rink in Ithaca, and then battles Colgate at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday in a game to be televised live by Time Warner Sports (channel 26) from Starr Rink in Hamilton.
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Clarkson got out of a six-game losing skid with a come-from-behind 2-2 draw against Canisius on Saturday at Cheel Arena after a heart-breaking overtime loss to the Golden Griffins on Friday. Sophomore center Lauri Tuohimaa (Helsinki, Finland) scored off of a tip-in while on the power play late in the third period for his team-high seventh goal of the season to salvage the tie. Freshman Richie LaVeau (Arlington Heights, IL), making his first official collegiate appearance in the Clarkson crease, posted 15 saves. The Knights more than doubled their shots against the Golden Griffins with a 36 to 17 advantage. Clarkson, however, trailed 2-0 early in the second period before senior Shea Guthrie (Carleton Place, ONT) put the Green and Gold on the scoreboard later in the stanza with his first goal of the season. The previous night, Clarkson appeared to be on its way to its first victory since November 7, but Canisius tied the contest with 13.8 seconds remaining in regulation and then became the first Atlantic Hockey team (1-8-0) to ever gain a victory at Cheel by connecting for the game-winner with 74 seconds left in overtime.
Ranked among the top teams in the country, Cornell returns home after splitting a tough non-league series out West this past weekend. On Friday, the Big Red lost for the first time this season, falling to North Dakota in Grand Forks 7-3 on Friday, but came back with a 2-1 victory over the Fighting Sioux on Saturday at Engelstad Arena. Guided by 14th-year head coach Mike Schafer, and associate coach Casey Jones, a former Golden Knight assistant coach, Cornell owns a 5-1-2 overall record and is tied for second place in the league standings with a 4-0-2 ECAC Hockey mark. The Big Red are 2-0-1 at Lynah Rink this season with home wins over Harvard (2-1) and Dartmouth (3-1), and a tie against Colgate (2-2).
After a 3-0 start to the year, Colgate has struggled and takes a seven-game winless stretch (0-5-2) into Friday’s game against St. Lawrence. The Raiders, guided by 16th-year head coach Don Vaughan, stand at 4-6-2 overall and are in seventh place in the league with a 1-3-2 conference slate. Colgate also had a lengthy trip out West this past weekend, where it lost at Denver, 6-1, and at Colorado College, 3-2. The Raiders are 2-2-1 at Starr Rink with season-opening wins over Lowell (2-1) and Bentley (4-1). Colgate tied Harvard (2-2) in its last home game on November 22.
Quotes From the Coach:
"Overall, I think the effort was much improved than from the previous weekend," stated George Roll about the games against Canisius. "Friday was a situation where we had the game late, but did not make a proper decision to get the puck deep, and it came back to cost us. Hopefully we will learn from our mistakes. On Saturday, I thought our effort was much better for 65 minutes. We competed at a pretty high level and held a pretty good advantage in the shots. We just couldn’t finish. I think it is a matter of us pressing too much, squeezing the sticks and not relaxing around the net. That’s what happens when you are in a streak like we are in. We have to continue to build upon our efforts and get to where we want to be."
The Series:
The lone ECAC Hockey team to hold an advantage over Clarkson in its all-time series, Cornell is the Knights’ oldest current rival having first played during the 1922-23 campaign with the teams battling to a 0-0 tie in Ithaca. The Big Red leads the rivalry against the Knights 51-49-11. Clarkson, however, is unbeaten in the last three games against Cornell (2-0-1) and took two from the Big Red last year, winning 4-2 at Lynah Rink and 4-1 at Cheel Arena, for its first conference sweep in the rivalry since the 1998-99 campaign. The Knights and Cornell also skated to a 3-3 non-league draw in Florida last season. Clarkson’s victory in Ithaca last January 20 was its first win at Lynah since March 6, 1999. Shea Guthrie is Clarkson’s leading scorer against Cornell with seven points on two goals and five assists through nine games. George Roll is 5-10-3 against Cornell, while the Big Red’s Mike Schafer owns a 23-12-3 record against the Knights.
Clarkson leads the Raiders in their all-time series, which began during the 1927-28 campaign, 80-41-13, but Colgate is coming off two of the biggest wins in the rivalry. The Raiders snapped out of a six-game winless stretch (0-2-4) against the Green and Gold by winning the final two games of the best-of-three ECAC Hockey quarterfinal series in Potsdam last March. After dropping Game 1 of the series1-0, Colgate rallied back by winning Games 2 (4-3) and 3 (3-2 OT) to advance to the conference championship tournament. The two New York State rivals have battled to four ties over the past five regular-season meetings. In their last two visits to Hamilton, NY, the Knights skated to a 1-1 tie last January and won 2-1 on February 3, 2007. Clarkson is 25-21-4 all-time at Starr Rink. Matt Beca paces the Knights’ offense against the Raiders with four assists. George Roll is 5-4-5 against Colgate, while Raiders’ head coach Don Vaughan is 11-19-8 in the series.
Knight Notes:
Sophomore Scott Freeman (Whitby, ONT) has tallied at least one point in each of the last four games and leads the Knights in scoring with 13 points, including a team-high 11 assists … Lauri Tuohimaa has scored a team-high seven goals to go along with three assists … Sophomore defenseman Bryan Rufenach (Cameron, ONT), who was a healthy scratch against Quinnipiac on November 21, has tallied four points (2-2) in the last three contests. He is Clarkson’s leading scorer from the blueline with five points (2-3) in 11 games after recording six points (3-3) in 35 games as a freshman … Shea Guthrie’s first goal of the season, against Canisius in the second period on Saturday, was Clarkson first goal in the middle frame in nine games. The Knights have been out scored 14-7 in the second period, but have finished strong by out scoring the opponents 13-9 in the third … Playing for the first time in four games due to an injury, freshman Julien Cayer (Longueuil, QUE) recorded two assists over the weekend, including Saturday’s game-tying goal … Freshman goaltender Richie LaVeau made his first official collegiate appearance on Saturday and earned the tie with a 15-save outing …. The Knights’ power play is starting to come around with a 3-of-8 effort (37.5%) over the weekend. The Green and Gold scored twice with the man-advantage on Friday, the first time this year they have multiple power-play markers in a game … Two of junior Matt Beca’s (Mississauga, ONT) three goals have come with the man-advantage. The Knights’ point leader last season (34), Beca did not have any power-play markers in 2007-08 … Clarkson’s sophomore class has accounted for 58% of the Knights’ scoring with 42 points on 15 goals and 27 assists … The Knights held Canisius to 17 shots on Saturday, the lowest total for a Clarkson opponent this season … Clarkson’s second-leading scorer with 10 points (3-7), sophomore Brandon DeFazio (Oakville, ONT) is the latest Golden Knight to be sidelined with an injury. He suffered an injury in Friday’s game and missed the second contest against Canisius. DeFazio will not play against Cornell and Colgate this weekend … Clarkson has lost players for 24 games due to injuries … The Knights are looking to break out of their longest winless stretch (0-6-1) since going seven games without a victory early in the 2004-05 campaign. Clarkson went nine games (0-7-2) without a win early in 1999-2000.