Weekend Previi

Sorry we have been lazy this week, but there hasn't been too much breaking news in the Clarkson community to note on, and we've been keeping busy with other things. This weekend both the men's and women's team face off against the league's defending champions and their road partner. Easily the toughest road trip for the men's team. All road trips are tough, but this one is a monster to open league play. This weekend's match-up is also a tall order for the women at home.

The men head to Cambridge after a 'week off' with a 4-1-1 record. Knight fans might feel more comfortable if the team was not demolished at home by the US-U18's last Saturday. However, fear not Clarkson fans, from a trusted and reputable source we here at CHF have learned that the Knights had a 'hard skate' on Monday. No word, however, if this hard skate left captain Nick Dodge keeled over at the goal line gasping, "Nick Dodge, CLARKSON UNIVERSITY." One can infer from head coach George Roll's comments after Saturday's game that it was not an easy week of practice for the Knights.

One can also imagine that it was not the world's best week of practice for the Harvard Crimson. Harvard traveled to Dartmouth to open the ECAC and were thoroughly smacked around in a 5-2 defeat. This opened up numerous of questions concerning the Crimson's defense and goaltending. A weakness Clarkson will look to exploit with their 4.67 goals per game offense. One game does not make a season, so look for Harvard to rebound from the loss and tighten up on D.

Special teams are the most important part of the game right now. With the new emphasis on reducing interference and illegal stick work, there are going to be many penalties called in these first set of league games. Clarkson has been Jekyl and Hyde on the penalty kill, giving up five powerplay goals to LSSU two Fridays ago, then one powerplay goal on Saturday, then looking very soft on the PK against the US-U18's. The return of senior D-man Mike Grenzy can not come fast enough as he is a crucial member of both the penalty kill and the powerplay.

In net, Kyle McNulty was the goaltender in net when the Knights won last. In the past coach Roll has gone with the 'hot hand' and McNulty is that right now. In out opinion though, David Leggio is still the starting goaltender and we would be very surprised if he did not start tonight's game.

Most of this holds true at Dartmouth, except they are better than Harvard right now. It's going to take a very solid effort and a complete 120 minutes of hockey to take four points out of this weekend. George Roll has stated though, that he now expects this team to take four points every weekend, no matter where they are playing. If Clarkson can sweep the weekend you will start to hear some national buzz about the team.

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Looking at my predictions last weekend:

5-5-4

Yale?

Seriously?

RPI?

Really?

Not my best week. My overall rankings fall to, 14-8-7. Still respectable. Here's the slate for the ECAC opening weekend:

Friday

• Princeton at Rensselaer - RPI 4-2
• Quinnipiac at Union - Quinnipiac 5 -1
• Colgate at Yale - Yale 2-1
• Cornell at Brown - Cornell 3-1
• St. Lawrence at Dartmouth - Dartmouth 4-2

Saturday

• Quinnipiac at Rensselaer - Quinnipiac 4-3
• Princeton at Union - Princeton 3-0
• Colgate at Brown - Colgate 5-1
• Cornell at Yale - Yale 3-1
• St. Lawrence at Harvard - Harvard 2-1

Clarkson can win both games, but I don't see it happening.

• Clarkson at Harvard - Clarkson 5-2
• Clarkson at Dartmouth - Dartmouth 4-2