What?!

As we all saw this weekend, truly anything can happen in the one and done format of the NCAA hockey tournament. We were two bounces away from seeing a frozen four consisting of three 4 seeds and one 3 seed. But even as the games went we all saw some history this weekend as the lowest seed from a nearly defunct conference won a pair of games and advanced to Washington DC.

Through the years it has been easy for Clarkson fans to say things to the extent of "We play well but we can never beat the big schools." I think this weekend showed that pairty has indeed showed up in college hockey and that every team has an equal chance when the puck is dropped. With the continued committment shown by the University the men's team can only look on this weekend and continue to improve, knowing that the little guy still does have a shot.

Playoff Hockey Continues

The ECAC tournament continues tonight with quarterfinal match-ups hosted by the top four seeds. Top seed Yale faces a hot Brown squad coming off a two game, two shutout sweep of Harvard. Second seeded Cornell takes on upset minded RPI, putting together their first weekend sweep this season. Princeton hosts Union and St. Lawrence hosts Quinnipiac.

Clarkson's final attendance figures came in at 48,269 for the season. Using 3000 to constitute a sellout the Knights sold out seven games this year. The Colorado College series, the home game against Yale, the two home games against SLU, and the home games against Cornell and Harvard. For the season the Knights averaged 2839 people per home game or around 94.6 percent of capacity.

George Roll now owns a 106-99-27 all time record at Clarkson. Coach Roll is 14-11 in ECAC tournament play and 1-2 in NCAA tournament play.

Some info about next year's schedule is becoming available. What we know now is the Knights will be traveling to Michigan State, Minnesota Duluth and to the Mariucci Holiday tournament in Minneapolis. The Knights will face RIT, Niagara and LSSU at home this season. The Knights have 2 more non conference games to fill with rumored games against BC and SLU to be announced.

Cole, Huskins on the move

In the NHL trade deadline fury two Golden Knight Alumni will be headed to different cities. Anaheim sent defensemen Kent Huskins up to San Jose and Erik Cole was traded from Edmonton to Los Angeles, then subsequently traded to Carolina in a three way deal. For Cole this is his second stint with the Hurricanes, the first one resulting in a Stanley Cup. For Huskins, he is also seeking his second Cup and has been dealt to the Western Conference's best team.

Playoffs!

Don't talk about playoffs!

The Clarkson men head to Schenectady this weekend for an ECAC Hockey League first round playoff series against the Union Dutchmen. Clarkson had the opportunity to stay at home for the first round but could not take away a win at Union last Saturday, thus sending the Knights and Dutchmen into a tie for 8th place. The Knights lost the tiebreaker to the Dutchmen based on number of conference wins.

This has been a trying season for the Knights who won the league regular season title last season. Untimely injuries, lack of offense, and suspect defense has plagued the Knights most of the year. Although the season has been long there have been flashes of brilliance with this team. The 1-1 and 2-2 ties of Colorado College, the 4-2 win over Miami, the 2-2 and 3-1 games against SLU and the 0-0 tie with Cornell all have shown the Knights are capable. The question now is are they capable when the season is on the line?

History has not been kind to the Union Dutchmen. By now we all know Union has never won a playoff series at the D-1 level. This piece of trivia is interesting to know, but has little bearing on the outcome of the games. History does not lace up skates, history does not tape sticks, history does not play the game. Union is 9-6-0 at home this season, Clarkson is 4-11-2 on the road. Union can win this series, the Knights can not enter this weekend with any other attitude than one of underdog.

I think the Knights will find that playoff magic this weekend, but this series will be close. I like Clarkson in 2 games over the Dutchmen, with at least one game going to OT.

Friday
Clarkson 4 - Union 3
Saturday
Clarkson 5 - Union 3