Winners of three straight to close out the season-opening, non-league portion of the schedule, Clarkson University takes to the road to begin ECAC Hockey play with a trip to NY's Capital District region.

Guided by eighth-year head coach Casey Jones and assistants Josh Hauge and Brent Brekke, the Golden Knights face a challenging task this weekend with a Friday game at a surprising Rensselaer team at Houston Field House in Troy, and a battle against 17th-ranked Union at Messa Rink in Schenectady on Saturday. Both games are 7:00 p.m. faceoffs.

Clarkson has some momentum going into conference action with a 3-2 overall record. The Green and Gold closed out a successful three-game home stand at Cheel Arena on Saturday with a 4-1 victory over Canisius in its lone action of the week. 

After opening the season with a pair of losses (4-3, 5-1) at Penn State, now ranked 6th in the nation, on October 11-12, the Knights began their current winning streak with a 4-2 triumph over then 13th-ranked Wisconsin and a 3-1 victory over Holy Cross at Cheel on October 19-20.

• Game Notes RPI-Union Weekend
• Coaches Corner with Mike Vaillancourt
• Video Stream
• USCHO.com Poll
• USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Poll
• ECAC Hockey

• The Knights lead the overall series against Rensselaer, which dates back to the 1924-25 campaign, 95-51-11. Clarkson leads 8-1-1 in the last 10 meetings and has won five straight and eight of the last nine over the Engineers. The Knights combined to defeat the Engineers 11-0 in three games in 2018-19, winning 6-0 in Potsdam, 2-0 in Belfast Northern Ireland and 3-0 in Troy on January 13. Clarkson's current shutout streak over RPI is 200:07. Clarkson is 3-0-2 in its past four games at Houston Field House, including three straight victories. The Engineers' last win over Clarkson was a 2-1 victory at Cheel on January 28, 2017.
• The Knights hold a 32-26-5 advantage in their all-time series against Union. After a strong surge by the Dutchmen over the last 10 years, the Green and Gold have begun to reclaim the advantage in the series and have won four of the last five meetings. Union has gone 6-4 over the last 10 games and owns a 22-19-3 lead in games played during the 2000s. Clarkson swept the series last year, winning 3-2 at Cheel on November 17 and 4-1 in Schenectady on January 12. The Green and Gold are 16-15-4 all-time at Messa Rink. The Dutchmen's last win over Clarkson was a 6-2 triumph in Potsdam on January 27, 2017. 
• Clarkson is 4-1-2 in ECAC Hockey openers under Casey Jones. The Knights defeated Rensselaer 6-0 in Potsdam to begin league play last year.
• Junior forwards Devin Brosseau and Nico Sturm have been named "Robert E. Empie '68 Men's Hockey Team Captains" while senior forward Marly Quince and Jake Kielly will serve as assistant captains. 
• The Knights have scored the opening goal in each of the first five games.
• After giving up nine goals combined in the opening weekend at Penn State, the Green and Gold allowed only four goals combined in the last three games. Both Wisconsin and Holy Cross entered their games against Clarkson averaging five goals a game, and Canisius was scoring 3.5 GPG. 
• Jake Kielly has been in top form during Clarkson's winning streak, combining for 65 saves on 69 shots (.942 save%) in the three victories, allowing only one even-strength goal during that span. A third-team ECAC Hockey All-Star last season, Kielly was named one of the 20 Division I goaltenders to the watch list for the 2019 Mike Richter Award, which annually honors the most outstanding goaltender in the NCAA. Kielly posts a career .920 save percentage and a 2.19 goals against average en route to a 41-28-11 record including 11 shutouts, which is tied for first among active Division I goaltenders.
• With at least one point in each of the first five games, Nico Sturm leads the Knights offensively, along with classmate Haralds Egle, with six points each.  Sturm is listed among the Top 75 NCAA players to watch by The Hockey News. The Knights' top returning scorer with 37 points (14-23), Sturm was named ECAC Hockey's Best Defensive Forward and a third-team conference all-star last season. He has a team-high five assists this season and shares the team lead in plus/minus (+4).
• Haralds Egle scored an empty-net goal to seal the victory over Canisius and also helped to set up the game-winner. He has two goals and four assists to start the season. 
• Freshman Josh Dunne is making an impact up front for the Green and Gold. The Knights' largest forward at 6-4, 198-pounds, the center recorded his first career two-goal game on Saturday with both of his scores against Canisius coming at the top of the crease. Dunne shares the Clarkson goal-scoring lead with three tallies to go along with two assists. He is tied for 11th in the country in points per game (1.00) by a freshman. 
• For the second consecutive game, Devin Brosseau tallied the game-winner, connecting for the deciding goal in the wins over Canisius (4-1) and Wisconsin (4-2). He had just two game-winning goals through his first two seasons.
• Junior Greg Moro and freshman Brian Hurley are pacing the offensive contributions from the blueline with one goal and two assists each through the first five games. Moro set up two goals in the win over Canisius.
• Freshman right wing Chris Klack tallied his first collegiate points in Saturday's victory with two assists. 
• Clarkson is 3-0-0 when leading after the second period. The Knights went 46-5-6 combined the previous three seasons when holding the lead through 40 minutes. 
• After this weekend's ECAC Hockey series in the Albany area, the Knights will play four consecutive non-league games before resuming league action at the end of November. Clarkson travels to Buffalo on November 10 for a rematch with Canisius and then hosts Michigan Tech in a two-game series at Cheel on November 16-17. Clarkson battles St. Lawrence in a non-conference game in Lake Placid on November 24 before returning to ECAC play, hosting Brown on November 30.
• In its 97th season, Clarkson boasts 73 winning campaigns and a 1,440-864-160 all-time record for a .617 winning percentage since 1920-21.

The Series:
Vs. RPI - The Knights lead the overall series against Rensselaer, which dates back to the 1924-25 campaign, 95-51-11. Clarkson leads 8-1-1 in the last 10 meetings and has won five straight and eight of the last nine over the Engineers. The Knights combined to defeat the Engineers 11-0 in three games in 2018-19, winning 6-0 in Potsdam, 2-0 in Belfast Northern Ireland and 3-0 in Troy on January 13. Clarkson's current shutout streak over RPI is 200:07. Clarkson is 3-0-2 in its past four games at Houston Field House, including three straight victories. The Engineers' last win over Clarkson was a 2-1 victory at Cheel on January 28, 2017.
Haralds Egle has eight points in the series on three goals and five assists followed by Nico Sturm with seven points (3-4). Aaron Thow is the only other current Knight with a goal in the series.  
Jake Kielly holds a .930 save percentage, a 1.94 GAA and a 6-1 record through seven games in the series. He combined for 39 saves in the two shutouts last season.  Nicholas Latinovich recorded a shutout in his first collegiate appearance, making 21 stops in last year's 3-0 win in Houston Field House.

Vs. Union - The Knights hold a 32-26-5 advantage in their all-time series against Union. After a strong surge by the Dutchmen over the last 10 years, the Green and Gold have begun to reclaim the advantage in the series and have won four of the last five meetings. Union has gone 6-4 over the last 10 games and owns a 22-19-3 lead in games played during the 2000s. Clarkson swept the series last year, winning 3-2 at Cheel on November 17 and 4-1 in Schenectady on January 12. The Green and Gold are 16-15-4 all-time at Messa Rink. The Dutchmen's last win over Clarkson was a 6-2 triumph in Potsdam on January 27, 2017. 
Devin Brosseau has a team-high four points in the rivalry with two goals and two assists. Jere Astren, Nico Sturm and Aaron Thow have also scored twice against the Dutchmen. Jake Kielly posts a .920 save percentage and a 2.45 goals against average through four games en route to a 3-1 record.

Scouting Rensselaer
After scoring a combined three goals in three losses to open the season, Rensselaer made an impressive showing to the 2018-19 ECAC Hockey campaign by sweeping Union College in a home-and-home series over the weekend. The Engineers handed the then 11th-ranked Dutchmen their first loss of the year, 5-3 at Houston Field House on Friday, and then went into Messa Rink and skated by their archrival 4-2 on Saturday. The Engineers, guided by second-year head coach Dave Smith, are 2-3 overall.

Scouting Union
A perennial contender as one of the top teams in the league throughout the last decade and a preseason favorite to challenge for the conference title this season, Union got off to a rough start to open ECAC Hockey play. The Dutchmen suffered a sweep at the hands of their archrival Rensselaer, dropping both games in a home-and-home series over the weekend, losing 5-3 in Troy and 4-2 in Schenectady. Head Coach Rick Bennett's squad was coming off two road victories over 13th-ranked Northeastern (4-3ot, 3-1) in Boston on October 19-20. Ranked 17th in the latest USCHO.com poll, the Dutchmen own a 4-2-1 overall record.