We're you payin attention to the Dude's story?

Tech splits with Lake State.

Clarkson took the Friday game 4-0 and followed it up Saturday with a pretty lousy effort, falling 5-1. The series echoed the games last year in Cheel in which Clarkson was blown out on Friday, then returned the favor Saturday night.

Scoring goals on the weekend were Nick Dodge, Chris D'Alvise, Lauri Tuohimaa, Steve Zalewski and David Cayer. David Leggio started on Friday and picked up the shutout. Tim Potter started Saturday and endured the loss, though most of the fault could be placed on the defense in front of him that gave up 39 shots on goal.

Clarkson is now 3-2 in non-conference games this year.

ECAC Preview

Yale Bulldogs

Last Year's Finish - 8th
Last Year's CHF Predicted Finish - 11th

Key Losses - Bill LeClerc Sr. D, Matt Cohen Sr. D

Key Returnees - Sean Backman So. F, Mark Arcobello So. F, Alec Richards Jr. G

Like many of the teams in the league, the Yale Bulldogs are somewhat of an enigma. On one hand they lose two senior defenseman, on the other hand they return 8 of 9 leading scorers from last year. On the third hand they ranked 45th in the nation in scoring offense. And on the fourth hand they return a goaltender who can be just as good if not better than any other tender in the league.

A true enigma.

Head coach Keith Allain indeed has his worked cut out for him if he is improve upon his 11-17-3 record from last year. He has the offense talent to give it a run, but the true test will come from the defense and the consistency of Alec Richards in the net. Unfortunately for Yale, even if everything comes together for the Bulldogs, the league is too top heavy for them to make any serious noise this year.

Up front the trio of sophomore forwards should pace the Eli's this year. Backman, Arcobello and Chris Cahill will need to lead the charge for the Bulldogs this year. Look for sophomore Greg Beller to contribute more to the attack, and for seniors Will Engasser and and Blair Yaworski to pick up points on the lines with the sophomores. However as last year proved if a team can shut down Backman and Arcobello, the Bulldogs lose most of their bite.

The Bulldogs turn to a youthful blueline lead by lone upperclassmen Robert Page. Look for sophomores JF Boucher and Ryan Doyle to get plenty of minutes this season. With the youth on defense the onus falls on junior goalie Alec Richards. The biggest knock on Richards through out his career so far is consistency. As seen last season when Richards opened with a 6-1-1 record, then sputtered the rest of the way finishing up with a 9-15-2 mark. We all know Richards can steal a game, but putting together a solid season has yet to be seen. As Richards goes this season, so will Yale.

Best Case Scenario - 6th
Worst Case Scenario - 10th

Clarkson Hockey Fan's Prediction - 9th

FOR THE WIN!

D'ALVISE SCORES IN OVERTIME

CLARKSON DEFEATS SLU 5-4

PIZZO, TUOHIMAA TALLY FIRST CAREER GOALS
MARKS AND ZALEWSKI CHIP IN

LEGGIO SHAKES OFF SHAKY FIRST PERIOD, STANDS TALL

ECAC Preview

My apologies for the delay in the previews, unfortunately the real world has caught up with me. Nevertheless:

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Last Year's Finish - 8th
Last Year's CHF Predicted Finish - 8th

Key Losses - Kirk MacDonald Sr. F, Jake Luthi Sr. D, Oren Eizenman Sr. F

Keey Returnees - Jordan Alford Sr. G, Mathias Lange Jr. G, Seth Klerer Jr. F

When first year head coach Seth Appert looked back on the 2006-2007 season, there were undoubtedly some high points, and some things that needed fixing. Appert is looking to fix what ails the Engineers, however, it is not an overnight cure.

RPI loses 30% of its total offense with the graduation of their top three scorers from last year in MacDonald, Luthi and Eizenman. In the offseason Appert recruited six forwards to fill this gap. Combine this youth with a team that was outscored by their opponents by 42 goals during the regular season, and RPI could find themselves in hot water often this year. The big line of Morissette, Klerer, and Contini will be counted on to produce, while the second line of Ornelas, Lord and Polacek, will be looked to provide momentum when the first line is shut down.

Behind the top two lines the scoring for RPI will have to come from an opportunistic defense and special teams unit. The best thing going for RPI might be it's youth in the third and fourth lines. With the amount of new recruits coming in the third and fourth lines will be fighting for ice time with the new comers. With a little luck Appert will find a diamond in the rough and a spark for the third line. If this doesn't happen expect the top two lines to get plenty of ice time, especially late in games.

On defense RPI starts no upperclassmen. This will be RPI's biggest challenge of the year as taking on some of the better offenses in the league will give the young defense a real workout. Expect league opponents to try and exploit RPI's youth, and for RPI to falter in a few games, especially early on against Minnesota, and Michigan/BC. However as the season progresses the mistakes should start to fade, the question will remain how far in the season will this be?

Behind the defense is RPI's tandem of goaltenders. Expect senior Alford and junior Lange to split time throughout the year. Both have the ability to steal games, but neither has shown consistent ability to stop a team when faced with a barrage of shots. With a young defense in front of them expect both to see their fair share of shots early on.

As the last remnants of the old coaching staff leave the program and Appert's new recruits come into fruition RPI will be in the hunt for a playoff bye and the league championship. However as the adage goes, "It's always darkest before dawn," RPI will need to endure one more year towards the bottom of the league before they make their move. RPI will stay in the hunt for home ice in the first round, but will end up just short.

Best Case Scenario - 8th
Worst Case Scenario - 12th

Clarkson Hockey Fan's Prediction - 10th

EDIT - RPI looked good this weekend, yet our predictions were made a long time ago and we will not waiver! Although any team that treats RPI like a 10th place team will be in for a long night.

Clarkson Gets By Providence Despite Being Outshot

Post-game podcast located here.

Clarkson utilized two first-period tallies to get past Providence Saturday night before 2,599 at Cheel Arena. It looked as though the Golden Knights were going to easily handle the Friars after scoring early, but Providence tightened up their defense the rest of the way to keep the Clarkson offense in check.

“I think it was a little bit them and a little bit us, they worked hard, you have to give them credit, they came and played hard for sixty minutes,” said Clarkson head coach George Roll, “But I thought we turned the puck over, again, got into a little too much one-on-one stuff, that’s a credit to them too but we played into that.”

Junior Shea Guthrie put the Knights ahead to stay just 2:47 into play. Classmate Dan Tuttle collected the puck at Clarkson’s own blueline and found Guthrie on a two-line pass. Guthrie harnessed the puck and skated in on goal with no one to face but senior goalie Tyler Sims. Guthrie faked to the five hole before flipping a backhander past Sims’ right side for the eventual game-winner.

The Friars nearly knotted the score with under six minutes to play when freshman Kyle MacKinnon hit the left pipe from the right face-off circle.

Clarkson added an insurance tally with 4:13 remaining in the opening period on a Providence defensive mishap. With sophomore Tim Marks in the box for hitting from behind, the Knights found themselves short-handed and defending their one-goal margin.

Clarkson sophomore Matt Beca got his stick on the puck when Providence attempted to pass out of their defensive zone. After the puck deflected high into the air, Beca settled the bouncing puck and found senior Steve Zalewski on the left side where he poked the puck past Sims.

One goal would prove to be all Clarkson needed and neither team lit the lamp the rest of the way. Both teams picked up two penalties each but were unable to capitalize on the man advantage.

Clarkson’s defensive play was vital throughout the game. Most importantly was senior netminder David Leggio between the pipes as Providence outshot the Knights 19-10 in the second and third period combined.

Clarkson did not allow Providence to convert on any of their three power plays and have yet to allow a power play goal this season.

“Obviously our power play, I thought that was maybe the best part of our game, we didn’t give them a sniff on their power play,” said Roll.

Clarkson moved to 2-1-0 on the young season while the Friars wrapped up an unsuccessful trip to the North Country and fell to 0-2-0. Clarkson opens ECACHL play next weekend against St. Lawrence while Providence begins Hockey East play at Northeastern.

Post-game podcast located here.

Clarkson Downs Massachusetts in OT

Despite a rough start the Knights upended the Minutemen in overtime, exacting revenge after both an overtime tie and loss to Massachusetts last year. Captain Nick Dodge picked up his 100th career point, tying the game at one a piece in the third period. Junior Dan Tuttle did the honors in the extra session, beating Paul Dainton to his left side following a centering pass by Dodge.

The Knights follow up tonight's exciting victory with a Saturday match-up with Providence. The Friars fell to St. Lawrence this evening 4-1 in a game that was close until the third period when the Saints broke it open with three tallies.

Chris Fohlin's podcast of post-game comments from head coach George Roll can be found here.

In-Game Updates: UMass

For in-game updates head on over to The Knight Report. Thanks!

UMass and Providence this Weekend

Hello all, my name is Chris Fohlin, I cover Clarkson men’s hockey for the Clarkson Integrator, USCHO.com, and the Sports Information Department at Clarkson University. I started the Clarkson Men’s Hockey Podcast for the 2006-07 season and it is now in its second season (07-08). Brett has been kind enough to invite me to contribute to this blog as both he and Ron are quite busy these days. I'll try to post previews and recaps to help out--perhaps some in-game updates as well. Please check out The Knight Report for the men's hockey podcast, as well as more blog posts regarding previews, recaps, and other thoughts.

As for this weekend...

The Golden Knights face-off against UMass and Providence this Friday and Saturday, respectively. UMass picked up a 6-0 exhibition victory over Trois-Rivieres this past Sunday, their only game to date. Providence has yet to skate in competitive play this season and will have already played St. Lawrence on Friday coming into Saturday's match-up with Clarkson.

Friday's goaltender (UMass)

Who will be in net for the Minutemen on Friday night is the big question. Last year's stellar netminder Jon Quick jumped to the NHL (LA Kings) after falling to U Maine in the NCAA Regional final last season. Sophomore Dan Meyers and freshman Paul Dainton each registered thirty minutes in Sunday's exhibition game with Trois-Rivieres. UMass does have another freshman goalie on the roster in Matthew Gedman but he did not see ice time.

Who to Watch

UMass
Keep an eye on UMass' sophomores Will Ortiz (forward) and Martin Nolet (defenseman). Ortiz picked up two assists in UMass' exhibition game while Nolet tallied one goal and two assists. For those that do not recall, Ortiz also assisted on the lone goal in last season's overtime victory against the Knights in the NCAA Regional playoffs.

Providence
As far as the Friars go, look for senior right-wing Jon Rheault and junior center Nick Mazzolini to be the go-to guys for Providence. Rheault and Mazzolini were the top point-producers last season and will look to pick up where they left off.

Predictions

Clarkson 3, UMass 1
With their 3-2 loss to St. Lawrence still fresh in their minds, look for the Knights to take advantage of the Minutemen's inexperience in net. The Knights will score "only" three goals as their front lines continue to gel. Senior captain Nick Dodge registers his second tally of the young season on another assist from freshman standout Scott Freeman.

Clarkson 4, Providence 0
The Friars went 10-23-3 last season but picked up victories over the likes of St. Lawrence, Boston College, Maine, and New Hampshire--go figure. Providence did fall to Clarkson 6-1 to begin the season, however, and ended with a sweep at the hands of New Hampshire (4-0, 6-0). Clarkson stands tall in net while Freeman picks up his first collegiate goal and senior Steve Zalewski his first of the season.

Where's the Beef?

It turns out a second child cuts down your blogging time in immense ways. As things begin to calm down you'll see a little bit more love. After all, we've just begun right?

I was fortunately enough to take in the Acadia exhibition on Cheel, which had an excellent turnout. No big changes at Cheel with the exception of some very classy banners promoting Clarkson's drive to raise some endowed hockey scholarships. Clarkson came out and played a very solid first period against Acadia, putting up four goals early on. It already looks pretty clear that the same offensive strategy is in effect this year. Clarkson successfully collapsed onto the net several times generating a lot of traffic and put home a couple of good rebounds. It was good to see Scott Freeman get his first goal.

After the first it seemed like everything pulled back. We saw Tim Potter in net for about half the game, and he played pretty well. It was nice to see the Knights playing with some semblance of patience as Acadia continually tried to goad them into fights and post-whistle hijinx. Fortunately we didn't take the bait and the DQ for Sunday.

If you were wondering that was the same Dale Good on the ice for the Acadia Axeman that played for Clarkson several years ago. Big thumbs up by the way to the Axeman fans that showed up. Several were seen milling about Club 99 and it was nice chatting with a few of them.

Unfortunately for the Knights, Sunday was not so good. a 3-2 loss to St. Lawrence. Fortunately I was on the road most of the game and missed it. It's really too early in the season to tell if SLU is going to be a strong team or not, but they played very well and they took advantage of opportunities, successfully screening David Leggio on faceoffs multiple times and putting home a seeing eye shot that pretty much put the game out of hand. As usual as the game wore down and the urgency increased the Knights were able to claw back a bit, and had their chances to tie it, but it was too little too late. Fortunately for us, the season is young, and a wake up call today is better than a wake-up call in two weeks.

Let the games begin!

I will be heading up to Clarkson this weekend and as a by-product of the trip will be catching the home-opener against Acadia University on Saturday where they will face the Axeman. The Axeman have opened up the season 0-2 and have not faced an NCAA opponent this season. After they take on the Golden Knights, they'll head over to match-up against UVM. Keep an eye out for plenty of commentary over the weekend after.

And hey people. Lets not forget, it's already a SLU weekend on Sunday. A big sports day. Unfortunately I'll be on the road and might not be able to catch the game on ESPNU at 4:00p. Sunday could be the perfect storm of sports for a Clarkson or SLU fan!