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Clarkson Strives for Cleary Cup this Weekend in Central NY

2/25/2020 3:24:00 PM

With a sweep in Central NY this weekend Clarkson will clinch the program's 11th ECAC Hockey regular season title. Easier said than done. The trip to play Colgate and Cornell has always proven to be one of the toughest on the Golden Knights' schedule with the Green and Gold winning the games in Hamilton and Ithaca on the same weekend just once in the past 22 seasons. That road sweep came on November 17 and 18, 2017 with Clarkson skating to 5-2 and 4-0 victories at Colgate and Cornell, respectively.

Clarkson, which has clinched at least second place in the 12-team league, is striving to take home its first Cleary Cup since the 2007-08 campaign. The Knights square off against the Raiders on Friday at Class of 1965 Arena and then battle the #1/2-ranked Big Red at Lynah Rink on Saturday. Both games are 7:00 p.m. faceoffs. 

Clarkson posts a 16-4 league mark, its most ECAC Hockey victories since winning 18 in 1998-99. Ranked 7th in the national polls, the Knights have skated to their third consecutive 20-win campaign with a 23-7-2 overall record, their most regular-season wins since compiling 24 during the 1996-97 campaign. Clarkson won 25 regular-season games in 1981-82.
• Clarkson closed out the regular-season home slate at Cheel Arena over the weekend, losing 5-2 to Harvard before bouncing back with its fourth shutout win of the season, a 4-0 whitewash of Dartmouth on Senior Night.
• The Knights, who are 12-5 in Potsdam this season, will play home in two weeks when they host an ECAC Hockey quarterfinal-round series for the third consecutive March.
• Clarkson is 11-2-2 in away games, tied for the nation's third best winning percentage (.800%) on the road. The Knights have won four straight games away from Cheel with their last road loss a 3-2 setback at Dartmouth on January 17, their only league loss on an opponent's home ice.   
• The Knights honored their veterans on Senior Night this past Saturday. Clarkson's Class of 2020 – Devin Brosseau, Haralds Egle, Shane Kuzmeski, Frank Marotte Greg Moro and Jordan Schneider - made their final regular-season appearance before the home crowd. Over their four-year careers, the Knights' seniors have compiled 90 victories (the most by any Clarkson class in 20 years), skated to four winning seasons, including three straight 20-win campaigns, hoisted three in-season tournament championship trophies, earned a home-ice berth in the ECAC Hockey playoffs all four years, and will host their third consecutive quarterfinal series in three weeks. The Class of 2020 has help lead Clarkson to two straight appearances in the ECAC Hockey Tournament Championship game, winning it all last March, and back-to-back showings in the NCAA Tournament. 
• Marotte has started all 32 games and played all but 44 minutes in the Clarkson crease, the seven most minutes (1,894:49) in the country. He is rated among the top goaltenders in the nation.  The graduate transfer posts a .940 save percentage (2nd), a 1.71 goals against average (4th),  a .750 winning percentage (5th) on an 23-7-2 record and is tied for fifth in shutouts (4).  He posted 27 saves in Saturday's 4-0 win over Dartmouth. Marotte, who starred at Robert Morris the previous three years, has been named ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week three times this season and was named conference Goaltender of the Month for October. He has posts a 73-51-10 career record.
• Egle, who missed the weekend road series at Quinnipiac (2/14) and Princeton (2/15) nursing an injury, recorded his third career two-goal game with the first and last goals in the win over Dartmouth. A right wing, Egle leads the Green and Gold in scoring with 32 points on 14 goals and 18 assists in 30 games. He has amassed 105 points (44-61) through 133 career games.  Egle was named ECAC Hockey Player of the Month for December. 
• Clarkson's Captain, Brosseau has recorded a team-high 1.12 points per game. The left wing has tallied eight goals and a team-leading 21 assists for 29 points through 26 games. 
he is tied for 12th in the country in assists per game.  A graduate student, Brosseau has compiled 112 career points (40-72) through 142 games.
• Brosseau has been named a Top 5 Finalist for the 2020 Hockey Humanitarian Award.
• Four-year veterans on the blueline, Schneider, Moro and Kuzmeski have played a leading role in Clarkson boasting the third ranked defense in the nation, allowing only 1.78 goals per game. Assistant Captains, Schneider and Moro lead the Knights in blocked shots with 50 and 42, respectively. 
• Kuzmeski had two of his best games as a Golden Knight over the weekend and tallied an assist in both games.
• Brosseau and Egle are among the top 20 NCAA men's ice hockey student-athletes, who excel both on and off the ice, who have been selected as candidates for the Senior CLASS Award®.
• Clarkson's penalty-kill has been the best in NCAA throughout much of the 2019-20 campaign. The Knights are currently killing off 91.9% of opponents' power plays (113-123). Clarkson has allowed just three goals in 52 man-advantage chances in 2020. Harvard's top-rated power play has two of those  and Quinnipiac the other.
• The Knights are ranked second in the nation for combined special teams play 58% (141-243), just behind Maine (58.2%).
• Clarkson's power play is 13th in the nation, clicking at 23.3% (28-120). The Knights, however went 0-of-7 on the weekend after hitting for 2-of-3 on the man-advantage in the 3-1 win at Princeton (2/15).
• Clarkson ranks third nationally in scoring defense, allowing only 1.78 goals per game.
• Offensively, the Green and Gold are 25th in Division I, averaging 2.94 goals per game.
• Sophomore center Josh Dunne is Clarkson's leading goal scorer on the power play with eight of his 13 tallies coming on the man-advantage, tied for eighth in the nation. He is third on the Knights in points with 27 and holds a +9 plus/minus.
• Junior Connor McCarthy leads Clarkson in scoring from the blueline with 20 points and nine goals, six of which have come on the power play. He leads all ECAC Hockey defensemen in goals and power-play tallies. Nine of his career 13 goals have come with the man-advantage.
• Freshmen, right wing Anthony Romano (6-4) and center Mathieu Gosselin (2-8) have tallied 10 points each.
• After missing three games in late January and early February, sophomore Chris Klack has come back with the Knights' longest current point streak with two goals and two assists over the past four games. He has eight points (5-3) in 27 games.

The Series:
Vs Colgate -Clarkson has won five straight over the Raiders to improve its record to 89-53-18 in the all-time series, which began during the 1927-28 campaign. The Knights skated to a 5-1 victory at Cheel Arena on November 16 in the first meeting this season. In 2018-19, the Green and Gold earned a 2-1 victory in Hamilton, NY on February 9 and rallied for a 3-2 win in Potsdam on March 1. Clarkson took three of four points during the regular season in 2017-18, winning 5-2 on the road and skating to a 4-4 tie in Potsdam. Clarkson also knocked off Colgate in the 2018 ECAC Hockey playoffs, winning a quarterfinal-round series at Cheel Arena 2-1 (1-2, 3-0, 5-1) on March 9-11. The Raiders' last regular-season victory in the series was a 3-2 triumph on January 21, 2017 in Hamilton. Haralds Egle has a team-high 10 points (5-4) through 10 games of the series. Devin Brosseau has six assists and seven points against the Raiders. Frank Marotte made 15 saves on 16 shots (.938 save percentage) in the 5-1 on November 16

Vs Cornell -Cornell is the Knights' oldest current rival having first played during the 1922-23 campaign with the teams battling to a 0-0 tie in Ithaca. The Big Red lead the rivalry against the Knights 68-56-17. Cornell won a tight 4-2 game in Potsdam on November 15. Clarkson had one of the biggest wins in the series, a 3-2 overtime victory in last year's ECAC Hockey Championship Tournament on March 23 in Lake Placid. The Big Red took three of four points during the 2019-20 regular season with a 5-0 victory in Ithaca on February 9, which snapped a five-game regular-season winless streak (0-2-3) against the Green and Gold. The teams battled to a 2-2 tie in Potsdam on March 2 with Josh Dunne scoring late in regulation, forcing the tie and denying Cornell's bid for the league's regular season title. The Knights shut out Cornell in both meetings during the 2017-18 campaign en route to earning three of four ECAC Hockey points.  Devin Brosseau has a team-high 10 points (5-5) in the series. Frank Marotte made 27 saves on 30 Cornell shots (.871 save percentage) earlier this year.

Scouting Colgate
Colgate will be battling hard this weekend as it looks to secure a home-ice spot for the first round of the league playoffs. The Raiders, who are in eighth place in the standings with an 8-9-3 ECAC Hockey mark, can clinch home ice with two points. They can finish anywhere from 6-9 in the standings. Colgate has struggled down the stretch with just a 1-6 record in February. This past weekend, Colgate lost both games on the road, falling 3-1 at Brown and 4-2 at Yale. The Raiders shut out Union 4-0 on February 15 for their last win, improving their record at Class of 1965 Arena to 3-6-4.

Scouting Cornell
The top team in the country with a No. 1 ranking in the latest USCHO.com poll, and rated No. 2 in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll, Cornell has been rolling throughout the 2019-20 campaign. The Big Red are in first place in the ECAC Hockey standings with a 16-2-2 league mark, two points in front of Clarkson. Winners of seven straight heading into Friday's game against St. Lawrence, Cornell owns a 21-2-4 overall record. The Big Red are 9-0-2 at Lynah Rink. Cornell's last loss was a surprising 5-0 defeat at Quinnipiac on January 31. 

 
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