Exciting Campaign on Tap for Clarkson

Photo by Chris Lenney

Featuring games against teams from the other five NCAA conferences along with the 22-game ECAC Hockey slate, the 2009-10 schedule promises to be another challenging season for the Clarkson University Men’s Hockey team.

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Guided by seventh-year head coach George Roll, associate coach Greg Drechsel and assistant coach Jean-Francois Houle, Clarkson will be out to prove that it once again belongs among the elite in Division I.

“This is one of our toughest schedules in some time,” stated Roll. “The ECAC Hockey campaign is always a battle from top-to-bottom, and when you add in the non-league games against traditional powers like Michigan State, Minnesota-Duluth, Boston College and Minnesota it certainly doesn’t get any easier. Niagara and RIT have established solid Division I programs, who will challenge annually for NCAA Tr. berths. We will also be playing Alabama-Huntsville for the first time and I am sure they will come up North with their “A” game. We have a lot to prove this season, and this schedule certainly gives us the opportunity to show what we are made of.”

Highlighting the non-league portion of the schedule will be away games early in the season against a pair of traditional NCAA powers. After an exhibition contest in Potsdam on October 3 against the University of Toronto, Clarkson will battle 2007 National Champion Michigan State of the CCHA in a weekend series at Munn Arena in East Lansing, MI on October 9-10 to officially open its 88th season. These will be Clarkson’s first games against the Spartans since the 1968-69 campaign. The Knights will also play two games out west against 2009 WCHA Tournament Champion and NCAA Tournament participant Minnesota-Duluth on October 30-31.

In between the Michigan State and Minnesota-Duluth series, the Green and Gold will play three games at Cheel Arena. Clarkson will host league leaders from the CHA and Atlantic Hockey in Niagara University and Rochester Institute of Technology on October 16-17 in the first of 16 games in Potsdam. The Knights will then take on arch-rival St. Lawrence University in a non-league game on October 24. The North Country foes will also play a pair of conference games with a home-and-home series on December 4-5.

The ECAC Hockey campaign begins on November 6 when Clarkson plays at Quinnipiac.

Also included in the 34-game schedule are an away game against 2008 National Champion Boston College of HEA (November 27), and a pair of games at Cheel Arena against Alabama-Huntsville of the CHA (January 8-9). Clarkson will also play in a holiday tournament for the eighth consecutive year with an invitation to the Mariucci Tournament hosted by the University of Minnesota on January 2-3. Along with Minnesota, the Knights will also battle Northern Michigan and Bowling Green for the tournament title.