Road Warriors

ALBANY, N.Y. - Only one ECAC Hockey team (Clarkson) will play in the friendly confines of its home venue in regular season action this weekend with the other four squads (Colgate, Quinnipiac, Rensselaer, and Union) traveling to take on non-conference foes. Five other League teams - Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale - will skate on the ice for the first time in 2011-12 in exhibition contests.

At Clarkson, American International
*Clarkson and American International will meet for the first time ever this weekend.
*AIC plays nine of its first 10 games on the road with its only home game in that stretch next Friday when it hosts Sacred Heart.
*After scoring just three goals a season in each of his first three years at Clarkson, for a total of nine goals through his first 99 games, Louke Oakley has found his scoring touch early in the 2011-12 campaign netting five goals in four games.

No. 14/16 Colgate vs. Army
*The Raiders travel to Hyannis, MA, to take the ice against Army in the second annual Cape Cad Collegiate Classic.
*Colgate has really turned around its fortune from a season ago with a 2-1-0 record in one-goal games through the first four games. The Raiders played 15 one-goal games last season and went 4-11.
*For the third straight weekend, Army will play a nationally ranked team. Following games against No. 11/11 Union and No. 13/13 Merrimack, Army faces-off against Colgate, ranked No. 14/16 in both national polls.

No. 11/12 Union at Niagara/RIT
*Union hasn’t played a game at Dwyer Arena since Oct. 11, 2003.
*Niagara is 3-1-2 in its last six home-openers.
*Union has established itself as one of college hockey’s toughest road teams over the past two seasons. The Dutchmen are 19-10-3 in road contests over the past two-plus years, including a current eight-game road winning streak that extends back to the end of the 2010-11 season.
*RIT is looking to capture its fourth straight Atlantic Hockey regular season title.
*The Tigers are 12-5-3 all-time against the Dutchmen. RIT and Union were strong Division II and III rivals in the 1980’s and early 90’s. They have faced each other four times since RIT moved to Division I, with Union holding a 3-0-1 advantage.  Last year, Union handed RIT its most lopsided loss of the season, 7-2 in Schenectady.

Quinnipiac at Robert Morris
*The Bobcats, winners of five straight games, have outshot their opponents in all of their games this season.
*Quinnipiac has scored five goals in five straight games against Robert Morris - a feat that the Bobcats have not accomplished against any other opponent in program history.
*Jeremy Langlois has tallied a point in each of Quinnipiac's first six games. It marks the longest season-opening streak since Eric Lampe had a point in the first eight games of the 2009 season.
*The Bobcats, as a team, tied a program record with four power-play goals against Canisius on Oct. 15. Quinnipiac went 4-for-8 with the man-advantage in the game.

Rensselaer at No. 5/6 Notre Dame
*Rensselaer and Notre Dame have played six times prior to this year, with each team winning three games. The most recent meetings came in the 2007-08 season when they played twice. The Irish won both of those games and the last three overall.
*Friday’s game is the first in the Compton Family Ice Arena, the new home of Notre Dame hockey. The Irish played their first two home games of this season in their previous home arena, the Joyce Center.
*The Engineers are 2 for 26 (7.7%) on the power-play, but 21 for 22 (95.5%) when shorthanded.

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