MEN'S HOCKEY HOSTS CLARKSON AND ST. LAWRENCE IN CRUCIAL LEAGUE CONTESTS

The Series
Tonight’s game marks the 117th meeting between the two schools with Clarkson leading the series by a 71-37-8 margin and the two teams are tied 20-20-3 at Starr Rink. The last time these two teams met, the Raiders snapped a three game losing streak to the Golden Knights with a 2-2 overtime draw at Cheel Arena on January 26. The tie marked the first time all season the Raiders have played to a deadlock. Senior Bob Vandersluis scored the game tying goal and fellow classmate Etienne Morin scored the other goal for the Raiders.

Scouting the Golden Knights
Clarkson is coming off a 2-0 loss to Brown Saturday night at Cheel Arena. Brown goaltender Yann Danis stopped 25 shots for his second consecutive shutout.

The Golden Knights are 3-3-1 since their last meeting with the Raiders, including wins over Yale (7-5), Princeton (3-1) and Harvard (4-1), losses to St. Lawrence (6-5), Rensselaer (4-3) and Brown (2-0) and a tie with Union (3-3).

Senior right wing Matt Poapst paces the Golden Knights in points with eight goals and 20 assists. Junior center Kevin O’Flaherty is the goal scoring leader with 12 goals and 14 assists. O’Flaherty and senior defenseman Kerry Ellis-Toddington are tied for the team lead in power play goals with five while Poapst and sophomore center Tristan Lush each have four. Poapst and freshman right wing Chris Blight each have three game winning goals.

Junior goaltender Mike Walsh sports an 11-11-6 record with a 2.52 goals against average and a .903 save percentage. He has had three shutouts this season by way of Miami (5-0), Mercyhurst (2-0) and Union (1-0).

The Golden Knights are 26/144 on the power play for 18.1 percent and are 113/136 on the penalty kill for 83.1 percent. They have scored the most goals in the second period (31) while also allowing the most goals in the same stanza (33).

Did You Know?
Colgate’s recent eight game unbeaten streak was the longest since the 1999-00 team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament and before that the 1989-90 team that lost in the NCAA Championship finals to Wisconsin.

The Last Time Out
Jamie Herrington scored with 15 seconds remaining in the game to lead the Dartmouth Big Green to a come-from-behind 4-3 victory against the Colgate Raiders in men’s hockey action on Saturday night at Thompson Arena.

Welcome Home
This weekend’s series marks the homecoming of three former Colgate grads and one former assistant coach. The Clarkson coaching staff, made up entirely of Colgate grads, returns to Starr Rink Friday night. Head coach Mark Morris is an ‘81 graduate of Colgate, while Ron Fogarty graduated in ‘95 and Brad Dexter graduated in ‘96. Fogarty served as the captain of the 1994-95 team, while Dexter was an All-American defenseman.

St. Lawrence assistant coach Chris Wells served as an assistant coach at Colgate before taking his current position.

A Fresh Start
Colgate is 9-4-2 since returning from Christmas break, including a 6-1-2 record in the last nine games.

On Cloud Nine
Nine different players recorded a point in the loss to Dartmouth with at least one player contributing from all four classes.

McKinnon Steps Up
Freshman Darryl McKinnon scored his third goal of the season at 16:02 of the third period against Dartmouth giving the Raiders a brief 3-2 lead before the Big Green scored two straight goals for the win.

Three Times a Charm
The Raiders have scored at least three goals in the last five games.

The International Line, Plus One
Senior Ben Bryce has recorded one point in six of the last eight games and the line of juniors Brad D’Arco and P.J. Yedon and freshman Dmitry Yashin has combined for 24 points in the last six games. D’Arco is on a five-game point scoring streak and is coming off a four-point weekend against Vermont (three assists) and Dartmouth (one assist).

Nifty 50
With two goals, including his second shorthanded tally of the season against Vermont February 15, junior Scooter Smith reached the 50 point plateau in his career. Smith added a goal in the 4-3 loss to Dartmouth Saturday night and now has 24 goals and 27 assists for 51 points. Smith also had two goals against Vermont earlier in the season.

He Shows He Cann
Sophomore goaltender David Cann tallied a career-high 38 saves against Dartmouth Saturday night.

A Once in a Lifetime Chance (Or Five Years)
Junior P.J. Yedon’s penalty shot against Vermont February 15 marked the first time since 1997 a Colgate player was awarded a penalty shot. It was also the second time this season a Colgate game featured a penalty shot and the second time in school history two penalty shots have occurred in the same season. Merrimack had a penalty shot in the first round of the Syracuse Invitational Tournament in November.