Weekend Preview

The table is set for the Clarkson Golden Knights.

Six games left in the regular season, four at home and five against the bottom five teams in the league. Just one point out of second place and two points out of first Clarkson sits poised to make a move to the top of the league in the next couple weeks.

This is the ECAC, however, anything can happen.

The league is very tight right now with a mere nine points separating first and last. Of the 31 completed season series, only ten have been sweeps. This year, more than any other year, any team can beat any other team on any given night. This is where Clarkson needs to be careful.

The Knights are 3-1-1 are over their last five and have had trouble finding a consistent game during the stretch. At Cornell last weekend the team took a night off, and were handed their worst loss in two months for it. They rebounded the next night and gutted out a 2-1 win at Colgate. If Clarkson wants to take four points this weekend they will need to put forth two sixty minute efforts this weekend.

Brown comes into Cheel with a 9-9-5 overall record and a 5-8-3 conference record, good enough for 9th in the ECAC. Brown took three points from Princeton and Quinnipiac last weekend. The injury bug has hit the Bears and it appears that they will be without three of their top seven scorers this weekend. This puts pressure on the Brown defense and sometimes hot, sometimes not goaltender Dan Rosen. Rosen has an 8-7-3 record this season, and has not been as sharp as he was earlier in the season.

I would be very surprised if Clarkson did not come out of the gate and try to put the first goal on the board in the first 5 minutes. The Knights are 13-0-2 when scoring first and are looking to reestablish their dominance on home ice from last season. If Brown can weather the early storm and get some clutch saves from Rosen, they have a chance. I think this is too important an opportunity for the Knights and I think this is the start of statement weekend.

Clarkson 5 - Brown 1

The Yale Bulldogs come in also in 9th place in the league but have been struggling to find wins. After starting the season 6-1-1, Yale has gone 3-10-3 and have won two of their last eight games with both wins coming against Princeton. To make the trip tougher they start the weekend out at SLU where the Saints have only lost to Clarkson this season. This would be the definition of a tough roadtrip.

In the last match-up Clarkson took sixteen minor penalties to Yale's ten. Yale also took a five minute major and had two misconducts. Clarkson took advantage of this scoring all four of their goals on powerplays. Three of which were 5 on 3. The ECAC has not been a strict in their penalty calling in the second half of the season, this is not to say special teams will come into play. If Clarkson can stay out of the box, which they have done so in the past four games, six penalties per game in the last four, Yale will have a tough test ahead of them.

Yale's leading scorers are two freshmen, Sean Backman and Mark Arcobello with 25 and 21 points respectively. After that the Bulldogs only have three other scorers in double figures this year. The Bulldogs rank 8th in the league in scoring, Clarkson ranks first in defense. If Clarkson can shut down the first line of Yale, the Bulldogs will have trouble finding the net.

Alec Richards is a goaltender that can steal a game, but with the way things have been breaking for the Eli's this year, having a goaltender bail the team out might be asking too much.

Clarkson 3 - Yale 1