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A long and difficult regular season comes to a close for the Clarkson University Hockey team this weekend when the Golden Knights host Harvard University and Dartmouth College in the final games at Cheel Arena for the 2009-10 campaign. Guided by seventh-year head coach George Roll, associate coach Greg Drechsel and assistant coach Chris Rogles ’93, Clarkson will look to set the ground work for a strong postseason run with a solid showing in the regular-season finale. The Green and Gold battle the Crimson on Friday night, starting at 7:30 p.m. and then take on the Big Green on Saturday, which is also Senior Night, at 7:00 p.m.

Clarkson’s Class of 2010 – Matt Beca (Mississauga, ONT), Jeremiah Crowe (Kenmore, NY) and Tim Marks (Brownville, NY) will make their final appearance before the home crowd this weekend. The Knights’ seniors have compiled 64 victories, participated in two NCAA Tournaments (2007, 2008), and played a key role in Clarkson winning the 2007 ECAC Hockey Tournament championship and the 2007-08 conference regular season title.

Clarkson owns a 7-22-3 overall record and a 3-15-2, 12th-place ECAC Hockey mark. The Golden Knights are 6-7-1 at Cheel Arena, including a pair of wins in their last games in Potsdam. Clarkson earned its only weekend sweep in conference play this season by defeating Princeton (4-3) and Quinnipiac (4-1) at Cheel on February 12-13.

After going 59 games (55-0-4) without a loss when leading or tied after two periods, Clarkson suffered third-period let downs in both games on the road this past weekend. The Knights led Brown 1-0 after 40 minutes at Meehan Auditorium on Friday before losing 3-2. On Saturday at fifth-ranked Yale, the Green and Gold took a 4-1 advantage early in the third before falling 5-4 in overtime at Ingalls Rink.

Beca leads Clarkson in scoring with 33 points, including a team-high 19 goals. He has amassed 118 career points (50-68) through 144 games. The Knights are averaging 2.47 goals per game.

Sophomore Paul Karpowich (Thunder Bay, ONT) has seen the bulk of the action in the Clarkson crease. Through 26 starts, he posts a .891 save percentage, a 3.72 goals against average and a 6-17-3 record. Karpowich is coming off a career-high 51 saves in Saturday’s game at Yale. Classmate Richie LaVeau (Arlington Heights, IL) has seen time in 10 games, including six starts, and holds a .895 save percentage, a 3.33 GAA and a 1-5 record. Clarkson is allowing 3.96 goals per game.

Harvard is looking to secure one of the top eight spots in the ECAC Hockey standings, guaranteeing a home-ice berth in the opening round of the playoffs. The Crimson hold an eighth-place 7-10-3 league mark, one point behind seventh-place Quinnipiac and one point in front of ninth-place Brown and Princeton. Guided by fifth-year head coach Ted Donato, Harvard posts a 7-17-3 overall record. The Crimson closed out a four-game home stand with a pair of losses last weekend in Cambridge, MA, falling 3-0 to Cornell and 4-2 to Colgate. Harvard is 3-8-2 away from Bright Hockey Center.

Unbeaten in its last three games (2-0-1) and 2-2-1 over its past five contests entering the weekend, Dartmouth is making a strong push to grab one of the home-ice berths for the first round of the upcoming playoffs. Guided by 14th-year head coach Bob Gaudet, the Big Green are in 11th place, but just three points out of eighth. Dartmouth, which plays at St. Lawrence on Friday, owns a 6-12-2 ECAC Hockey mark and an 8-17-2 overall record. Dartmouth skated to a 6-6 tie against Colgate last Friday in Hanover, NH, and upset 10th-ranked Cornell 5-4 at Thompson Arena on Saturday. The Big Green are 2-9-1 away from home.

The Series:
The Knights lead the series against Harvard, which began with a 2-1 Clarkson win in Lake Placid on December 28, 1935, 48-45-11. The Golden Knights have gone 6-2-2 against the Crimson over the last 10 meetings and have skated to consecutive ties in the series’ past two games. Earlier this season, on November 21, the Green and Gold rallied for a 2-2 tie at Bright Hockey Center. Last season at Cheel Arena, Clarkson and Harvard skated to a 3-3 draw on February 21. The Crimson won the first meeting last year 5-1 in Cambridge, MA. The Knights’ last win in the series was a 4-2 triumph at Harvard on January 12, 2008. Clarkson is 12-6-2 against the Crimson at Cheel Arena. Matt Beca paces the Clarkson offense against Harvard with a team-high seven points on five goals and two assists through nine games in the rivalry. Paul Karpowich is 0-1-1 in the series with a .808 save percentage and a 3.36 GAA. Richie LaVeau is 0-0-1 against the Crimson with a .885 save percentage and a 2.77 GAA. George Roll is 8-6-3 against Harvard, while the Crimson’s Ted Donato is 4-7-2 against the Knights.

The Golden Knights hold an overwhelming 64-22-6 advantage all-time in the rivalry against Dartmouth, which began with a 4-1 Clarkson win on February 4, 1929. The Knights have won two straight and are 5-4-1 over the past 10 meetings. Clarkson earned a 3-2 victory in Hanover, NH on November 20. The teams split last year with Clarkson snapping a two-game slide to the Big Green with a 6-3 victory at Cheel Arena on February 20, 2009. Dartmouth skated past the Knights 5-1 at Thompson Arena on November 15, 2008. Clarkson is 14-2-2 against the Big Green at Cheel Arena. Matt Beca (1-6) has recorded a team-high seven points in six games against the Big Green while Tim Marks has scored a team-high three goals to go along with two assists. Paul Karpowich is 1-0 and has played 88 minutes against Dartmouth with a .941 save percentage and a 2.04 GAA. Richie LaVeau is also 1-0-0 against Dartmouth with a .857 save percentage and a 3.00 GAA. George Roll is 6-6-2 against Dartmouth, while Bob Gaudet, who also coached at Brown, is 11-27-6 against the Knights.

Knight Notes:
Matt Beca leads Clarkson in scoring with 33 points. He has 19 goals through 32 games, the most by a Golden Knight since Steve Zalewski ’08 tallied 21 in 38 games of the 2007-08 campaign. Zalewski is the only Clarkson player to score at least 20 goals during the 2000s. Beca has a four-game goal-scoring streak with five goals since February 12. He has accumulated eight (6-2) points in February and has amassed 118 career points on 50 goals and 68 assists through 144 games … Paul Karpowich made a career-high 51 saves in the overtime loss at fifth-ranked Yale, including a record 20 stops in the third period. He has made 30-or-more saves in 14 games this season and posted five games where he has recorded 40-or-more stops. Karpowich has started 26 games, including the last 10 … Senior defenseman Jeremiah Crowe snapped a 72-game goalless stretch with his second career score, coming at Yale on Saturday. Crowe’s other collegiate goal came against the Bulldogs at Cheel Arena as a freshman on February 10, 2007 … Sophomore Corey Tamblyn’s (Bobcaygeon, ONT) goal-scoring streak came to an end at five games when he was held off the score sheet at Brown, but he recorded an assist at Yale to give him 14 points (8-6) on the season after recording just one assist as a rookie … Clarkson’s second leading scorer, junior captain Scott Freeman (Oakville, ONT) has tallied two goals in the past three games, and 22 points (7-15) through 31 games … Brandon DeFazio (Oakville, ONT) is the Knights’ third-leading scorer with 21 points (9-12) and is coming off a one-goal, one-assist outing at Yale … Sophomore Louke Oakley (Whitby, ONT) is Clarkson’s leading playmaker with 18 assists and rounds out the Knights’ 20-point scorers (2-18) … Sophomore Nick Tremblay (Candiac, QUE) has notched six assists over the past six games and has 15 for the season … Clarkson finished the regular season with a 1-15-2 record away from Cheel Arena.