End of Year Awards

The Clarkson Golden Knights hockey team had their awards banquet tonight. Here are you 2007 award winners:

Knight Club Award Presented to a deserving player who made a significant contribution to the team, achieved academically as well as being excellent role model for his teammates and the young people of the community.

Recipient: Matt Curley

Fran Neragin Award Named in honor of the loyal Clarkson hockey booster who passed away in 1984, the Neragin award is presented to a player who excels in sportsmanship and academics, and who has contributed significantly to the Clarkson hockey program.

Recipient: Kyle McNulty

Paul J. Pilon Award Established in the memory of the former Clarkson hockey player who died in a tragic car wreck in 1937. It is presented, when appropriate, to the senior who has excelled both as a student and hockey player.

Recipient: Brodie Rutherglen

Richmond Unsung Hero Award Named in honor of loyal Clarkson followers Ernie and Connie Richmond, the award has been presented to a Golden Knight who displayed unselfish play and was very instrumental to the team’s success.

Recipient: Mike Sullivan

Mike Morrison Coaches’ Award for teamwork, hustle and dedication. The award was named in honor of the former Clarkson captain who died in a work accident on July 27, 1988.

Recipient: Max Kolu

Bill Harrison Clarkson Most Valuable Player in honor of the successful Clarkson coach of the late 1940s and 1950s.

Recipient: David Leggio

Weller Goes Pro

OTTAWA - Ottawa Senators general manager John Muckler today announced the club has signed prospect Shawn Weller to an entry-level contract.

Weller, 20, was the Senators’ first third-round choice (77th overall) in the 2004 NHL entry draft.

The Glens Falls, N.Y., native set career highs in goals (19), assists (21) and points (40) while recording 62 penalty minutes in 39 games in his third season with Clarkson University of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). In 2004-05 Weller represented the United States at the World Junior Hockey Championships, held in Grand Forks, N.D.

We at Clarkson Hockey Fans wish Shawn the best in his pro career.

Top Ten Reasons....

For Clarkson not winning their NCAA game this weekend:

10. Flaky internet connection at Blue Cross Arena severs the link between George Roll's mind, the Roundtable and USCHO message boards.

9. Mike Sullivan gassed after Coach Roll enters him in Toastmaster competition scheduled for immediately after the game.

8. Pre-game lunch at Nick Tahou's inadvertently causes Clarkson to go into a dump and chase offense when the players say "Safe!" on the ice approximately 170 times during the game.

7. Under intense pressure, David Leggio's post-season mustache cracks after a pre-game locker room visit from Ian Manzano's 98-99 hair.

6. Didn't call the RPI Pep Band for backup.

5. Not anticipating a forty game season, Goldie Knight runs out of the letters, K, G and H forcing her to create signs that say "WE LOVE OUR NITS." Coincidentally, the Northwestern Saskatchewan Nits won their first ever AAAA Provincial Super Midget Tournament in over fifty years behind huge international fan support.

4. After heated debate and visiting GameFaqs.com between periods, Will Ortiz and Kevin Jarman realize that you can't just rush up the ice on the right side, deke the goalie and score every time.

3. Clarkson and St. Lawrence let guard down after ECAC Commissioner Steve Hagwell mentions that ECACH teams have never lost in the NCAA tournament.

2. Captain Nick Dodge's 2nd period "Captain's only" meeting was mistook by the team who brought in Captain James T. Kirk, and Captain Jean-Luc Picard in an effort to solve the UMass neutral zone trap.

1. In a bizarre sign of solidarity, the team decides to score as many points as men's football team.

College Hockey 24 hours a day!

The Knights have graciously accommodated the Northern New York and New England fans by winning a #1 seed, and the accompanying Rochester location. Yet still, some of us can not attend the event due to:

(a) having not convinced the significant other that these games are vital to the family's health

or

(b) having not calculated the ROI to gain the supervisors approval for your days off.

Those that are stuck in the garage with me, can now watch all the games somewhere on the tube. Previously the NC$$ had made finding "your game" a difficult task. This has changed somewhat with their new broadcast central site. Unfortunately, the distribution rights are not determined beforehand, so check back often for updates!

If you subscribe to DirectTV Sportspack (Ch 609) or Dish Network Top 250 (Ch 148), the selection is easy. All games will be shown on ESPNU, although some are on tape delay. Now just get the remote, frosty beverage, and wing sauce ready!

Knight fans that live in the Albany area can watch Time Warner TW3 or CH1 for a full helping of games. Syracuse residents will get a slightly less filling plate of college games, though the Knights will be covered.

Other alternatives that may be in your area include
Altitude
Comcast (CN8)
FSNY
FSNN

Those that are stuck on top of a mountain with a connected laptop can watch it on the CN8 stream.

Finally, if you don't see it on the USCHTV site...try moving to Hawarden, Iowa..where apparently all 2600 residents are college hockey fans!

Happy viewing and LGT!!!

Seats are filling up!

Single game tickets go on sale today for the Rochester regional. Act fast because the word is sections 104 and 105 were sold out. These were the sections offered by the University. Here is a seating chart of the BCA.

The Ticketmaster charge by phone number is 585-232-1900. The box office hours are 10am-3pm. Tickets go on sale right now. Let's Go Tech! See you at the rink!

Addition: Now is good a time as ever to dust off this piece. $38 for individual game tickets? Ridiculous.

Update: Single day tickets are availible in the corners on the lower level. The choose best option on Ticketmaster puts you in the top level. Looks like attendance might be decent for the games.

A Rochester Primer

With games approaching quickly here is a brief overview of the Rochester Area and a list of things to see and do while you're in town.

We'll start with the Blue Cross Arena.

Getting there:

FROM THE EAST

NYS Thruway to exit 45 (Victor)

Take 490 WEST and exit at Clinton Avenue

Turn Left at Broad Street (third light)

The Arena is on the corner of Broad and Exchange Streets.

FROM THE WEST

NYS Thruway to exit 47 (LeRoy)

Take 490 East to the Inner Loop exit #13

Take Plymouth Ave. exit #13 and turn right onto Plymouth

Turn Left at Broad Street (third light)

The Arena is on the corner of Broad and Exchange Streets.

FROM THE SOUTH

390 North

Take 490 East to the Inner Loop exit

Take Plymouth Ave. exit and turn right onto Plymouth

Turn Left at Broad Street (third light)

The Arena is on the corner of Broad and Exchange Streets.

Parking:

There is a parking garage across Exchange Street, event parking usually runs in the 10-20$ range. If you get there early there is street parking and $10 lots on Court Street. You can also take you chances with street parking on Exchange, but this has a tendency to fill up quick and it can be a bit of a walk.

Tickets:

Weekend packages are going for $71 for all three games. Unfortunately you have use Ticketmaster right now. The box office will have individual game tickets on sale starting Wednesday for $38 a game. Again, you have to go through Ticketmaster.

Game Times:

Clarkson plays Massachusetts at 2:30 PM EDT on Friday. St. Cloud takes on Maine at 6:00 PM EDT. The winners face off Saturday at 6:00 PM EDT. According to the tickets there is NO RE-ENTRY. In our opinion, this sucks big time, but it's how arenas make their money.

After the Game:

(Right-click to open the map in a new window)

1 - Blue Cross Arena
2 - Dinosaur Bar-B-Que
3 - Manhattan Square Park
4 - The Old Toad
5 - East and Alexander

As you leave the Blue Cross Arena (1) cross the Court Street bridge and you can't miss the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que (2). Much bigger than the original in Syracuse, be sure to expect a big crowd in here before, during and after the games. A large bar with a good beer selection and ribs that might be the best this side of St. Louis.

Continuing on Court St. on the right hand side will be Manhattan Square Park (3), featuring an outdoor skating rink. Temps are slated to be in the mid 50's this weekend so bring your skates and take a couple laps.

Moving further east down Court as it turns into Broad Street, cross over the inter-loop and head one block further east and find yourself at The Old Toad (4). An authentic British Pub that hires British exchange students as servers and features some of the best beers on tap in the city. Odds are high you'll find the author of this post in there after the games.

A left hand turn at the Old Toad brings you to the corner of East and Alexander and what many consider to be the highlight of Rochester night life. Clubs and bars line the street and a left hand turn down East for two blocks will bring you to the Little Theater. Rochester's main independent movie house. A right hand turn down East will take you to the George Eastman house and the Rochester Museum and Science Center and Strasenburgh Planetarium.

Hopefully this will start your trip to the Flower City off on the right foot, enjoy your stay and see you at the rink.

You Asked For It

Dear anonymous RPI poster,
When you said:

It seems like the Clarkson fans are spending more time here bashing the RPI band (and trying everything to fabricate reasons to do so) rather than celebrating the championship they just won. Don't you have anything better to do with your time?

You were right, we need better things to do with our time. Enjoy.

Post Game Press Conference

The press conference following the championship game. Featuring Roll, D'Alvise, Paquet.

Game Misconduct!

This week's CHF ECAC Hockey Trivia question should be an easy one for those who attended the tournament last weekend in Albany.

Q: How is it possible to be eliminated from the ECACHL Tournament twice?
(answer at the bottom of the post.)

What a weekend! Pretty much a constant adrenaline rush with the exception of the first two periods on Saturday that were instead lumped into the final twenty. Unbelievable resilence from this team from top to bottom. I've already got my plans set for Rochester next weekend!

But that's not why I'm here. I'm here instead to deliver a game misconduct to the RPI band for their antics over the past weekend. While this may not have been an "official' function, many members of their band made the trip to the Times-Union Center to cheer against Clarkson and to play along with the small Quinnipiac band contingent which braved the storm from Connecticut.

First of all, who travels to a neutral site arena for a tournament they're not even a part of, to cheer against a team? I'm all for bands that are in the tournament playing back and forth at each other, but I'm trying to figure out if this is just unsportsmanlike, stupid, or both.

Later on in the game, the hybrid band busted out Otis Redding's "I Can't Turn You Loose" better known as the theme that Joilet Jake and Elwood Blues enter with at the Palace, and even more famously known as the tune played when the Golden Knights hit the ice since 1982. I certainly hope this was just an honest mistake by the Quinnipiac band, and not a suggestion from the RPI band. For all I know it could be Q tradition from the MAAC and D2/D3 days. Regardless a down Clarkson crowd, became furious, and I hope it put a jump in the player's steps too. Imagine Ohio St. playing the Michigan fight song going into the 4th quarter winning 28-3. Not good.

To top it off we get a rendition of the RPI Fight Song, from the Quinnipiac section, in a tournament that RPI isn't at. Ridiculous. When you show up at an arena for your own ego instead of the hockey, turn around and leave. It's an insult to everyone else at the arena. What were they going to do if Quinnipiac won anyhow? It would've been the Bobcats time. Not theirs.

Despite my bitterness over the band situation, Quinnipiac and their fans traveled extremely well, and I'm impressed. They show more spirit and cohesiveness than half the teams in our league already. I was a little miffed that their band was given the cold shoulder at the opening of their new arena. I hope they become more of a tradition for their program, and will travel in larger numbers in the future.

As for the RPI members that traveled. Do yourselves a favor and think about good taste. Also, stop calling yourself "America's Pep Band." it makes my citizenship status hurt.

Oh, and the answer to the trivia question:
When you're RPI's band.

Knights Take Title

The Clarkson Golden Knights - 2007 ECAC Tournament Champions

Recaps:
College Hockey News
USCHO
Inside College Hockey
Bonesaw
Albany Times Union

ONE SEED!

ECAC CHAMPIONS!

The Barn! The Barn! The Barn is on fire!

(posted by Ron)

WOW. Bring us back to 1998-1999 again.. With a strong lead in hand, the Princeton Tigers stormed back to tie the Golden Knights when Willie Mitchell fired "The Shot" to take Clarkson to the ECAC finals where they would defeat St. Lawrence.. Tonight Dartmouth comes back from 3-1 down to tie the Knights 4-4 with a minute and change remaining when Steve Zalewski nails the game-winner with forty-one seconds left to send Clarkson up against the Quinnipiac Bobcats who disposed of Clarkson's arch-rival SLU earlier in the evening.

Just an unbelievably fun game to watch even if I was forced to watch it online.

Big game tomorrow night for the ECACHL Championship. Game will be televised by CSTV.

Just ran some Pairwise Predictions and with a Golden Knights victory here are my likely scenarios. A Clarkson loss will likely result in a #5 or #6 in the PWR likely sending the Knights to Rochester or Manchester as well.
---

Clarkson wins.
UNH loses to Boston College
St. Cloud defeats Wisconsin

Clarkson is PWR #4, a one-seed heading to Manchester, NH.

----

Clarkson wins.
UNH loses to Boston College
Wisconsin defeats St. Cloud

Clarkson is PWR #3, a one-seed heading to Rochester, NY

----

Clarkson wins.
UNH beats Boston College
St. Cloud defeats Wisconsin

Clarkson is PWR #5, a two-seed heading to Rochester, NY.

----

Clarkson wins.
UNH beats Boston College
Wisconsin defeats St. Cloud

Clarkson is PWR #3, a one-seed heading the Rochester, NY

----

Keep in mind the WCHA consolation CAN end in a tie.
This also assumes that the top-remaining seeds win their respective tournaments:

Army over Air Force
Minnesota over North Dakota
St. Lawrence over Dartmouth
Michigan State over Lake Superior

Food for thought! I'm too lazy to bust out anything further. Hope to see you all in Albany tomorrow!

Too pumped for blogging!

First, we owe you all an apology. We've been pretty quiet on the blogging from for a variety of reasons, much of which have to do with us trying to cover the entire NCAA situation over at College Hockey News. The other part is that so much has been said, it's just tough to say it again. Brett and I are incredibly excited about this weekend. Brett just hit the road at noon to drive his way through a snowstorm to get to Albany. I will be heading immediately to the nearest bar after work to piss off basketball fans by switching their game to CSTV's semi-final coverage. I should be heading out to Albany tomorrow morning.

Instead of trying to preview the entire tournament, I'm just going to run through a bunch of the big points heading into this weekend.

ECACHL Tournament. It's ours is if we want it bad enough.
Clarkson has defeated each of these teams this season, and while not the #1 seed, they're considered the favorite by most. The tournament is theirs to win or lose, but Clarkson is also running into two very hot teams in Dartmouth and potentially SLU. Victories over these teams would be a huge boost going into the NCAA tournament.

Clarkson fights for a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but where will they be?
With some help from SCSU and UNH, Clarkson could rise to a #1 seed in th NCAA tournament if they can win the ECACHL title. Yet despite this, Clarkson may not end up in the Rochester regional and may get shipped out to Manchester, NH to be in UNH's bracket where they're the host. Clarkson fans are struggling with this because, they feel Clarkson should have geographical preference in this situation, where Rochester is essentially a home-game and Manchester is very rough territory. No bracketology article that I have seen has placed Clarkson as a #1 seed in Rochester, but have placed them there as a #2 seed. We've also seen bracketology place them in Denver as well. We'll find out on Sunday for sure.

Leggio wins Dryden Award, other Knights honored.
You'd be hard pressed to say at the beginning of the season that David Leggio would be receiving the Dryden Award for Goaltender of the Year, but here he is after a spectacular season. As Brian Sullivan at USCHO pointed out, Leggio has let in two goals or less twenty-two times this season. Unbelivable.

David Leggio and Nick Dodge were also named to the ECACHL first-team, but fans are in an uproar for leaving Steve Zalewski and Shawn Weller off of any of the three teams, and Matt Beca from the All-Rookie Team. I chalk it up to being such a strong team from top-to-bottom splitting votes, and just some blind choices.

Get them in the box... Get some goals...
Clarkson has third best power-play conversion rate in the country, and is tops amongst teams that will head to the NCAA tournament (barring a miracle for Maine) with a 22.8% conversion rate. The Knights need to maintain their cool, and let their opponents take the penalities, and do whatever they can to avoid the ECACHL tradition of matching minors so they can be a man-up. If this happens, we should be seeing red lights.

SCORE FIRST.
Clarkson is 18-0-2 this season when scoring first. That is all that needs to be said.

Brett will be live-blogging from the Times Union Center. Keep tabs on him over at http://blog.collegehockeynews.com. If you're heading to Albany be sure to seek us out over the weekend and say hello. Safe driving everyone!

A nice highlight reel from the weekend. Courtesy of The Bonesaws.

Knights Sweep Crimson

It wasn't pretty but Clarkson defeated Harvard tonight 2-1, sweeping the Crimson and advancing to the ECAC final four for the first time since 2004.

Grant Clitsome put the Knights on the board first with a first period powerplay goal. Clarkson played it's best period of the weekend in the first, but only had a 1-0 lead to show for it at the end.

Harvard was skating for their lives in the second and took it to Clarkson, leading to a goal and a 1-1 game. Harvard was awarded a penalty shot in the second as well but could not convert.

In the third period, Mike Sullivan snook home a beautiful feed from David Cayer to give the Knights a 2-1 lead. David Leggio stood tall as Harvard plugged away with the extra attacker. Leggio was equal to the task and the Knights move on to Albany. Leggio finished with 37 saves on the night and had 64 saves for the weekend.

Clarkson will face Dartmouth in the ECAC semifinals at 8PM at the Times Union Center in Albany. SLU will take on Quinnipiac at 4:30.

Knights Blank Harvard; Take Game One

Nick Dodge tucks home a Shawn Weller rebound for Clarkson's second goal.

David Leggio stops 27 shots, including 18 in the second period for his second shutout this season.
Rutherglen nets game winner halfway through the game.
Dodge tallies on the powerplay.
Weller seals it with an empty netter.

Game two tonight at 7.

Harvard @ Clarkson: ECAC Quarterfinals

Coming off their first weekend of rest in nearly three months the Clarkson Golden Knights look to advance to Albany and the ECACHL final four. Armed with the league's top goaltender, David Leggio, and the second ranked offense and defense in the league the Knights would appear to have a clear advantage going into this best of three game series against the 7th seeded Crimson. However the press surrounding this series has been anything but one sided. Of the three major on line college hockey sites Clarkson is predicted to win the series twice, and two of the three predicted the series to go three games.

Why the predictions? Harvard has been playing it's best hockey since being swept out of the Beanpot, going 4-1-1 with a sweep of Colgate and Cornell in the last week of the regular season and a sweep at home of the Yale Bulldogs in the first round of the ECAC's. Senior netminder Justin Tobe has allowed just five goals over the past five games and the Crimson offense has found it's stride scoring 14 goals over the same span. Everything is coming together for Harvard, but now they have to take the show on the road. A road which has treated Harvard to a 5-9-2 record this year, including a loss at Cheel.

Clarkson at home is another story, and it will be the deciding factor is this match-up. The Knights are 10-3-4 at home this season and 24-5-6 at home over the past two years. They have only lost two games at home on the same weekend once in the past two years. This is a superior team at home and this weekend will prove it. Harvard has had a good run but the reasoning behind why some people think they will have success this weekend is borderline ludicrous.

The main argument for a Harvard series victory is this: "Harvard will advance to Albany because they have advanced to Albany the past 6 years." While this is true, it does not take into account a starting goaltender who has a career 11-10-0 record as a senior. Not exactly the battle hardened veteran that has lead the Crimson in the past. Dov Grumet-Morris had played in 114 career games and John Daigneau had 42 career starts when they were seniors. Tobe in his career has 27 starts, in his career. David Leggio has 32 starts this year. The advantage lies in Clarkson's court.

In the past when Harvard had down years, the Crimson had at least 7 NHL draft picks on the roster. The talent was there, but the team just took a long time to gel. This year the number of draft picks is five. Again, there is talent there, but not in the multitudes of years past. Clarkson has the talent, as we have all seen, and has come together around George Roll's system. And while the occasional clunker is still possible, the team is clicking right now and is looking to prove it is worthy of the national hype. Not unlike Crimson teams in the previous 4 years.

To base future performance off of past experience in sports is a dangerous road to tread. To make the comparison to baseball, we know the Yankees have won the AL East for the past 9 years. Is this a guarantee that they will win the AL East this year? While some might say yes, they would be wrong. There are too many intangibles in sports to base a future prognostication on past performance. Harvard will put up a fight, but their presence in Albany will not be felt this year.

Mad Skillz!

Clarkson's Lindsay Williams has been named to the East squad for this year's Pontiac Frozen Four Skills challenge. The challenge will be held on April 6th, in St. Louis. Williams is also a candidate for the Humanitarian Award which will be presented along with the Hobey Baker award prior to the event which kicks of festivities for this year's Frozen Four. Mike Sullivan has been named as an alternate to the East squad as well and may participate if other participants withdraw from the event.

The events will be televised live on ESPNU with the Hobey Baker at 6:00p, the Humanitarian Award at 6:30 and the Skills Challenge at 7:30 CST.