By earning one point last weekend in NY's Capital District region the Clarkson University Hockey team was able to secure a home-ice berth in the first round of the ECAC Hockey playoffs for the second consecutive year, finishing as the eighth seed with an 8-11-3 league mark. The Golden Knights, guided by fourth-year head coach Casey Jones and assistants Phil Roy '00 and Andy Jones will host Rensselaer this weekend at Cheel Arena.

The best-of-three game series starts on Friday with a 7:00 p.m. faceoff. The teams will meet again in Game 2 on Saturday in a 7:30 p.m. start, and if necessary on Sunday in a deciding Game 3 at 7:00 p.m.

Clarkson enters postseason looking to snap out of a six-game winless stretch, which includes five losses.

-- ECAC Hockey has announced that upcoming men's games for the league's postseason tournaments will be available worldwide through the technology of BoxCast. The men's first-round and quarterfinal round coverage will be streamed beginning Friday, March 6 with live broadcasts of all four first-round games of the Men's Championship Tournament. This marks the eighth consecutive year that postseason action from ECAC Hockey can be viewed by fans around the world. ECAC Hockey tournament games will be available for viewing by a global audience and be aired through www.ecachockey.com. Fans can watch all first-round and quarterfinal round games of the ECAC Hockey tournament on mobile devices as well as standard PCs and Macs. The games will be available on iOS devices as well as Androids.

Fans can purchase a game for $9.95 (US) for viewing directly from www.ecachockey.com.

Clarkson Audio Broadcast Here - Live Stats Here

The Knights, led by junior captain Paul Geiger (Stouffville, ONT) and assistant captains, senior James Howden (Edgeley, SASK) and junior Jeff DiNallo (Aurora, ONT) own an 11-18-5 overall record. The Green and Gold have not won since defeating RPI 5-2 in Potsdam on February 7.

The Knights took three of four league points from RPI this year, including a come-from-behind 3-3 tie in Troy on Friday, which clinched eighth place for Clarkson. In the regular-season final in Schenectady on Saturday, the Knights could not hold a 2-0 lead against Union and lost 3-2 to the defending national champions.

Clarkson and Rensselaer have faced each other only 10 times in the ECAC postseason with the Engineers holding a slim 6-4 advantage. In the last postseason meeting between the two rivals, RPI defeated the Green and Gold 2-1 in a first-round series at Cheel on March 2-4, 2012. RPI won Game 1 (5-1) and Game 3 (4-1), while the Knights took Game 2 (4-3) in triple overtime (113:48) in Clarkson's longest game ever and the sixth longest game in NCAA history. The Knights lead the overall series against Rensselaer 86-48-10. The teams have skated to a 4-4-2 mark in their last 10 meetings.

Scouting Rensselaer

Guided by ninth-year head coach, Seth Appert, Rensselaer owns 10-23-3 overall record and finished in ninth place in the ECAC Hockey standings, one point behind Clarkson, with an 8-12-2 conference mark. The Engineers closed out the regular season strong by taking three of four points from the North Country teams at Houston Field House over the weekend. After the 3-3 tie against Clarkson on Friday, RPI snapped a nine-game winless stretch (0-7-2) with a 4-3 victory over St. Lawrence on Saturday.

Rensselaer is 4-12-2 on opponents' home ice this season.

Drew Melanson leads the Engineers with 20 points (9-11). Jason Kasdorf posts a .898 save percentage and a 3.04 GAA along with a 9-16-2 record with one shutout through 28 starts in the RPI net. Scott Diebold, who picked up his first win of the season on Saturday against St. Lawrence, owns a .895 save percentage and a 3.13 GAA, and a 1-7-1 record.

• The Knights have played in 20 games decided by one goal-or-less, going 5-10-5,and are 0-2-5 in overtime games.

• Clarkson is allowing only 24.21 shots per game (3rd in the NCAA).

• Clarkson is 6-9-1 in games at Cheel Arena this season.

• James Howden enjoyed a memorable night at RPI, scoring the tying goal with 6:42 remaining to help Clarkson secure a home-ice berth for the playoffs. He also tallied an assist for his first career two-point night. Through 32 games this season he has three goals and five assists.

• Joe Zarbo (Grand Island, NY) is the Knights' top goal scorer with nine tallies. He had four points (1-3) over the weekend and is second in points for the Knights with 16 (9-7). Zarbo is Clarkson's current career-scoring leader with 62 points (31-31) in 133 games.

• Jeff DiNallo leads Clarkson in scoring with 19 points on five goals and a team-high14 assists.

• Sophomore defenseman James de Haas (Mississauga, ONT) leads the Knights in scoring from the blueline. He is tied for third overall on the team with 15 points on six goals and nine assists.

• Jeff DiNallo leads Clarkson in scoring with 19 points on five goals and a team-high 14 assists.

• Sophomore A.J. Fossen (Maple Grove, MN) has tallied four of his five goals this season over the past four games. All of his goals this season have come over the past seven games. Fossen has 11 points (5-6) in 30 games this season.

• Janick Asselin (Coaticook, QUE) holds the Clarkson freshman scoring lead with 11 points on four goals and seven assists through 22 games. He has 10 (5-5) of those points over the past 13 games.

• The Knights are 13th in the nation on the penalty-kill at 86.7% (98-113). The Green and Gold own the top PK in ECAC Hockey action at 92% (69-75).

• The Knights have steadily improved with the man-advantage and are now clicking at 16.7% (17-102) and are third in ECAC Hockey at 19.4% (13-67). Freshman defenseman Kelly Summers (Golden Lake, ONT) leads Clarkson in power-play markers with five tallies. The Knights have played in six games were they have been awarded only one power-play opportunity, seven when they had only two attempts and one without any.