Clarkson vs. Colgate

(to view game story check our website tomorrow morning)

Two teams that were in desperate need of a win today had to settle for a tie. Clarkson and Colgate, which each had eight-game winless streaks, skated to a 3-3 tie.

Here were thefive things to watch and how Clarkson did in each category:

* Continue Starr Rink dominance - Clarkson is 6-1-1 in its last 8 games in Colgate's building, although they have not enjoyed as much success against the Raiders in Cheel Arena. That's one odd thing about this series: (At least it wasn't a loss and 6-1-2 in the last nine games at someone else's rink is pretty impressive).

* Lead! - Clarkson has been outscored 32-15 in the first two periods so far this season. Today's game seems like one where it will be vital for either team to take a lead. Clarkson has led after the first period just twice this season and has only had the lead after two once, in the season opener. Colgate is 0-5 when the opposition scores first and the Raiders have been outscored 25-12 in the last two periods of games and overtime this year: (Clarkson did better than they've done in recent games in this area, it was 3-3 after two. But Clarkson never held the lead in this game and has seemed to play from behind almost all the time in the last month).

* Special teams - Both teams have struggled in this category this season, though Colgate has fared a little better on the power play. Whoever wins this category today just may win the game: (Clarkson had a slight edge here with two power-play goals compared to Colgate's one).

* Offense - in the past, Colgate/Clarkson games have always been low-scoring affairs. Clarkson has struggled to score goals of late, but if there was ever a team you could snap out of a slump against it appears to be the Raiders. Colgate has given up 14 goals in the last three games, including five against SLU Friday: (Chris D'Alvise came up with two goals and Clarkson put shots on net which led to some nice goals, especially Lauri Tuohimaa's redirection of a shot by Julien Cayer for the first goal).

*Goaltending and defense - Clarkson will be missing leader Phil Paquet again today after he reinjured his ankle Friday night. But the Golden Knights need to step up on defense and assist goalie Paul Karpowich with shots he can stop. Karpowich has had a very impressive freshman season, but the team as a whole has saved 90 percent of shots just once in the last seven games and in two of the last seven games Clarkson's goalies have had save percentages below 80 percent. That's not all the goalie's fault, some shots they've had no chance, but Clarkson needs to find a way to cut down the opposition's quality scoring chances: (Mixed results here. It's hard to really judge the defense with Tyrell Mason and Mark Borowiecki each missing the game, but all three of Colgate's goals were plays were the player was able to get right outside of the crease. Clarkson gave up 15 shots in the first period but then settled down and allowed only 13 in the next two. Colgate had five shots in overtime, but that was more because they started the period on a power play and the momentum stayed their way).

REMINDER: I will not be posting on this blog again until Jan. 2 prior to the first game of the Ohio State game.

Merry Christmas!

Clarkson vs. Cornell

Clarkson's winless streak was extended to eight games (0-7-1) after Cornell picked up a 4-1 win over the Golden Knights in Lynah Rink Friday night. The Big Red's defense was impressive, holding Clarkson to just 14 shots on goal.

Here were the five key things to watch in the game (I posted these before the game this time, now updating how Clarkson did in each category)

* Play a solid first two periods - Clarkson has led just once after the second period all year, in the season opener, and has been outscored 29-15 in the first two periods: This didn't happen as Cornell scored two goals in the first and then added another in the third to build a 3-0 lead heading into the final period.

* Special teams - Clarkson went 3-for-8 on the power play last weekend, but Cornell is 4-0 if it scores a power-play goal: It wasn't Clarkson's night on special teams either. Clarkson went 0 for 4 on the power play and had three power plays in the second period, yet picked up just two total shots on goal that period. Cornell went 1 for 4 on the power play.

* Deal with Lynah - Clarkson won 4-2 last year at Cornell, but is just 4-13 in the last 10 years at Lynah Rink, including three postseason series: Make that 4-14 now.

* Wake up the offense - Clarkson is averaging just 2.3 goals-per-game: No real offense to speak of in this game, but Cornell will slow down a lot of teams. The Big Red aren't a team you want to face when you are in an offensive slump.

* Will Scott Freeman and Bryan Rufenach stay hot? Freeman has scored in four straight games and Rufenach has picked up four points (2 goals-2 assists) in the last three games: Freeman had just one shot, but again, none of Clarkson's forwards were really able to do much against Cornell's defense, except goal-scorer Jon Marshall and Shea Guthrie, who had four shots on goal. Rufenach had one shot on goal and according to the radio broadcast had a solid game.

Photo Albums

Our website has links to some photo albums of recent Clarkson games.

Here is a link to extra shots from the Canisius game.

Here is a link to extra shots from the Princeton game.

Here is a link to extra shots from the Yale game.

Timeout with the Times

Here is today's question and answer session with Tim Marks..

Here are the answers that didn't make the cut:

WDT: You had a hat trick last year against Dartmouth. What was that game like
for you and did you ever expect to get a hat trick in your career?
Marks: It was definitely one of the highlights of my hockey career, it was just one of those games where everything I happened to get on net found its way its way in. I always knew that I had the ability to score goals but a hat trick is tough in college hockey let alone the ECAC where all the games are such low scoring, Im not going to say I expected it but I always knew that it was possible.

WDT: Your first year here you won a league tournament championship and both
years here you've been in the NCAA Tournament. Things are starting a little
slower this year. How are you and your teammates handling the early
adversity?
Marks: I think for the most part everyone is handling it well, in more than a couple games we could have easily been up but found ourselves down and that is just the way the our luck is going right now we just have to continue to work hard everyday and get better everyday because at the end of the season I truly believe that you will see us there and we will be a better team for this slump we are in right now.


WDT: One of your coaches, J.F. Houle, used to play at Clarkson. If you were to
come back here 10 years from now which one of your current teammates could
you see as a Clarkson assistant and why?
Marks: I am going to say Tyrell Mason. Mase definitely has the coach like mentality he is our captain right now as was houley when he played and he is a hard-nosed intense guy who wants to get better everyday and tries to make everyone around him better as well.


WDT: How often did you get to attend Clarkson or SLU games as a kid and do you
have any favorite memories or favorite players?
Marks: Well I know I am probably going to hear about it but I watched alot more SLU games as a kid than I did Clarkson games, we used to come 4 or 5 times a year with the teams I played on or just by oursleves. I am going to say one of my favorite players was Willie Mitchell though I remember him scoring from behind center ice in the ECAC semi-finals on TV when I was in the hospital with appendicitis.


WDT: What would you like to tell people from Watertown about Division I hockey
and what do you feel they may be missing if they never make the one-hour
drive to catch a game?
Marks: First off the speed and finesse of the game is something that people do not realize about hockey until you watch it in person especially college hockey, everyone on the ice can skate and thats what our game is all about speed. Second of all the atmosphere is what really gets alot of people that watch there first college hockey games and at cheel its a little something more, at times its hard to hear yourself think on the ice the students and are fans are so supportive and thats probably the best thing in my mind about playing college hockey and especially at Clarkson.

WDT:You had to leave home fairly early to go play junior hockey in Canada. Was
that tough or was it a pretty easy decision to make?
Marks: It really wasn't that hard of a decision to make ever since I started playing hockey at a competive level I knew it was what I wanted to do and in order to continue to get to the highest possible level of hockey I can get to it was something that I had to do.

Christmas Vacation

Just a note for the readers of this blog..I will be out of town starting Sunday the 7th until New Year's. There will be updates on Friday and Saturday's games, but to read Saturday's game story you'll have to check our website (watertowndailytimes.com)on Sunday.
There will be no updates during the two games at Bowling Green, but you can read stories on those games on our website.
I will be back with posts starting with the first game of the Ohio State Tournament on Jan. 2.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Clarkson Notes

Here is this week's edition of Clarkson notes..

We also did a 'Timeout with the Times' with Tim Marks. It should be on our website sometime today, but tomorrow I'll post the answers he gave that we had to cut for space reasons.

A 2-2 tie

photo courtesy of Clarksonathletics.com

Clarkson rallied and came up with a late power-play goal to earn a 2-2 tie with Canisius on Saturday. The tie snapped a six-game losing streak just one game shy of tying the school record for a single-season losing streak (seven set in the 1943-44 season).

Here were my five things to watch for prior to the game:

Special teams - another win for Clarkson in this category as the power-play continues to show signs of coming around. Clarkson tied the game with a power-play goal from Lauri Tuohimaa and went 1-for-3 while killing two penalties and allowing Canisius only one power-play shot.

Defense - again, more improvement as Clarkson held the Golden Griffins to just 17 shots for the game and only five combined shots in the second and third periods.

Offense - this is still a concern as Clarkson continues to struggle to score goals. Shea Guthrie did get his first goal of the season and it wouldn't surprise me if that leads to more goals this weekend for him. Clarkson did have chances, taking 36 shots, and hit a few posts.

LaVeau - Freshman Richie LaVeau earned his first playing time and played well, stopping 15 of 17 shots. He stopped one breakaway.

Get a lead - again Clarkson struggled in this category. The team has not led after two periods since the season-opener against RIT and it seems like forever since the last time Clarkson scored the first goal of a game. I believe it was in the loss at Dartmouth a few weeks ago.

BONUS COMMENTS
Canisius coach Dave Smith on whether this series will continue. He said Clarkson is not going there next year but will play at Canisius two years from now and added, "We'd really like to play a lot of the New York state schools. It's good for us. We want to play schools like Clarkson, St. Lawrence and Colgate, all those."

13.8 seconds away

It was another tough night for the Clarkson hockey team Friday. This time the end of a five-game losing streak was just 13.8 seconds away before Canisius rallied for an extra-attacker goal and then won the game 4-3 with a goal in overtime.
Clarkson also added to its injury list as Brandon DeFazio suffered a separated shoulder during the game. It's not known how long he'll be out.

Here were my five points prior to the game and how Clarkson did:

Special teams - For the first time in quite a while Clarkson actually won this category. The Golden Knights went 2-for-4 on the power play against a Canisius team that recently set a school record with 38 straight kills. Clarkson also killed 7 of 8 penalties, including a five-minute major to Chris D'Alvise in the second period.

Improve the defense - again, despite the four goals, Clarkson did a good job at this end of the ice, allowing the Golden Griffins only 24 shots. In the first two periods Canisius had only three shots near the net, but in the third they picked up five, including the game-tying goal.

Work ethic - this was off and on. The team was definitely not outplayed, but there were visible spurts where you could see more effort than at other points. What comes to mind is after Clarkson got the 3-2 lead in the third and was rallying, you could see some extra speed in the skates as they tried to get that fourth goal.

Offense - this remains a concern, despite three goals. Bryan Rufenach had a solid offensive day, scoring a power-play goal and picking up an assist and Matt Beca appears ready to return to form, scoring the game-tying goal in the third. How DeFazio's injury affects what had been Clarkson's best line (Scott Freeman, DeFazio and Lauri Tuohimaa) remains to be seen.

Build a lead - again, Clarkson did play from behind for most of this contest. The team has led after the first period just twice all year and has not lead a game after two periods since the season-opener against RIT.

Clarkson Notes

Our paper does not publish on Thursday, Thanksgiving, so we will have no Clarkson notes this week.

I have a few items I'll post here, instead.

*CONSIDER 1999*
After two straight NCAA Tournament appearances it might be natural for Clarkson fans to panic a bit, seeing the team with a 2-6-2 overall record 10 games into a season.
While it is likely that repeating as ECAC Hockey regular-season champions is unlikely, given that five of the losses are in conference play, Clarkson has set a precedent in the past of showing you can overcome a bad start to have a pretty good year.
Consider the 1998-99 squad. That team, too, was coming off two very successful years. The 1997 team was No. 2 in the nation at the end of the regular season and the program had played in back-to-back ECAC title games, although it lost both.
But the 1999 squad, led by sophomores Erik Cole, Willie Mitchell and Kent Huskins, got off to a horrible start. The team lost its first four games (two at home to Northern Michigan and two at North Dakota). It beat Yale in the conference opener, then dropped two more games, losing at home to Princeton then losing 3-1 at St. Lawrence.
So where did that team go after its 1-6 start? Clarkson finished with a 25-11-1 overall record, an ECAC regular season and tournament championship and a spot in the NCAA quarterfinals, where it lost to eventual national champion Maine.
*RANDOM NOTES ABOUT THIS WEEKEND*
-Phil Paquet, who has been injured since the Nov. 24 game against Colorado College, was supposed to begin skating this week but I'd imagine he wouldn't be used for at least one more week.
-Clarkson has an 8-0 record at Cheel Arena against Atlantic Hockey Foes.
-Canisius is a Catholic school in Buffalo. The Golden Griffins are 5-5-2 and are tied for second in Atlantic Hockey with a 4-3-1 record. The only common foe the teams have had is Niagara, which defeated both.
-Clarkson is just 1-3-2 at Cheel Arena so far this season.
-Clarkson has not had a lead at the end of the first period yet this season.
-Coach George Roll could win his 100th game at Clarkson with a weekend sweep.
-These will be the last games at Cheel Arena for Clarkson until the ESPNU game against St. Lawrence University on Jan. 11.

Pro Hockey Notes

Feature on Mike Sullivan, playing his first year in Germany