An 18-game home slate and 11 non-league contests against teams from the other five NCAA conferences highlight the 94th season of Clarkson University Hockey for the 2015-16 season.

"I really like the balance and strength of our schedule," said head coach Casey Jones, the Leonard S. Ceglarski Endowed Chair for Clarkson Hockey. "We feel it is a competitive non-conference schedule that brings new teams to Cheel and takes us to places we have not been to recently. When you combined that with the 22 games in ECAC Hockey it makes for an exciting season."

The complete schedule can be seen here.

Clarkson officially opens the year with six straight non-league games before the Golden Knights' battle for the Cleary Cup begins in early November.

The Knights host Atlantic Hockey foes RIT and Niagara on October 9-10 to begin their 25th season at Cheel Arena. The Green and Gold make their first road trip of the year the following weekend, traveling to New England to battle Hockey East foes Merrimack and the University of New Hampshire. Clarkson returns to Potsdam on October 23-24 with a weekend series against Western Michigan of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference.

"We will be facing a very strong program from the NCHC in Western Michigan over Parents' Weekend, and we look forward to hosting Arizona State in their first year as an NCAA program, stated Jones. "It is an opportunity to help college hockey expand and it will be exciting for our fans to see a new teams at Cheel."

The ECAC Hockey campaign begins for the Knights with three straight games in the North Country. Clarkson hosts Capital District foes Rensselaer and Union On November 6-7 and then travels to Canton to battle archrival St. Lawrence on November 13.

After making its longest conference road trip of the season to face Quinnipiac in Hamden, CT and Princeton in New Jersey on November 20-21, Clarkson returns home to host first-year NCAA program Arizona State on November 27-28.

The Green and Gold make their toughest road trip of the season to begin December, traveling to Central New York to face off against Colgate and Cornell.

The 2015 portion of the schedule comes to a close in late December as the Knights play games in Pennsylvania for the first time in almost 40 years. Clarkson will battle UMass-Lowell of Hockey East and then play for the first time ever either Robert Morris of Atlantic Hockey or Penn State of the Big 10 in the Three Rivers Classic at the CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh on December 28-29. The New Year opens with Clarkson traveling to the Midwest for a two-game series against WCHA's Bowling Green in Ohio on January 2-3.

"We have the opportunity this year to play in the Three Rivers Classic over the break against top teams from their respective conferences," noted Jones. "We have a few players from the Pittsburgh area, so it will be nice to showcase ourselves to families, friends and alumni in the area. We will stay on the road and extend that trip through into Ohio to play a series at Bowling Green. We are really looking forward to that stretch. It will be a chance for our team to be on the road, bond, play quality competition and get prepared for the second half."

ECAC Hockey play closes out the remaining schedule with the Knights playing nine of the final 15 games in Potsdam. Conference action returns in full force on January 12 as the Knights battle St. Lawrence in a rare Tuesday night game at Cheel. The regular season comes to a close with Harvard and Dartmouth visiting the North Country on February 26-27.

Playoff hockey begins on March 4-6 with the first round of the ECAC Hockey tournament, while the quarterfinal round will be held on March 11-13. The league's championship weekend will return to Lake Placid where the tournament title will be decided at the 1980 Rink - Herb Brooks Arena on March 18-19.

NCAA postseason play concludes with the 69th Annual Frozen Four on April 7 and 9 at Amalie Arena in Tampa, FL.

The Knights get an early jump to the season with an exhibition contest against Canadian college foe McGill University on Saturday, October 3 at Cheel.

Follow Golden Knights Hockey online with live radio broadcasts, video streaming and livestats at Clarkson Hockey Broadcast Central

Clarkson posts an impressive 1,375-820-146 overall record since the 1920-21 campaign for an all-time winning percentage of .619, among the best in the country. The Knights have participated in 20 NCAA Tournaments, including three championship games, won 10 ECAC Hockey Regular Season titles and have skated away with five ECAC Tournament championship trophies during their illustrious history.

Tickets: Cheel Arena Box Office, 315-268-7750.