From playing in warm and sunny southwest Florida last week the Clarkson University Hockey team travels to the frigid climate of central Canada on Saturday to close out a nine-game road trip.

Guided by first-year head coach Casey Jones and assistants Phil Roy ’00 and Andy Jones, the Golden Knights open the New Year playing the University of North Dakota on January 7.

Dubbed the U.S. College Hockey Classic, the game will be played in Winnipeg, Manitoba at the MTS Centre, home to the National Hockey League’s Winnipeg Jets. Faceoff time is 8:37 p.m. EST.

The Green and Gold will be looking to snap out of a three-game tailspin, its longest losing streak of season. Clarkson, led by senior captain Jake Morley (Ogdensburg, NY) and assistant captains, grad student Nick Tremblay (Candiac, QUE) and sophomore Ben Sexton (Kanata, ONT), stands at 9-9-4 overall. In their last action, after an 18-day layoff, the Knights dropped a pair of games in Florida, losing to Maine 6-1 and Cornell 5-3 at Germain Arena in the Florida College Classic in Estero, FL on December 29-30.

The last four games of Clarkson’s longest road trip in 71 years will have been played on neutral ice. Prior to the tournament in Florida, the Knights battled archrival St. Lawrence in a non-league contest at the 1980 Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid on December 10, losing 4-1.

After nine consecutive games away from Cheel Arena, the Knights return home on January 13 to resume ECAC Hockey play by hosting defending league tournament champion Yale. Clarkson’s last game in Potsdam was a 4-0 victory over Dartmouth on November 19. In their final conference game before the break, the Green and Gold skated by St. Lawrence 5-3 at Appleton Arena in Canton on December 6 for its last victory. Clarkson enters 2012 in a five-way tie for fourth place in ECAC Hockey with a 3-4-2 league mark.

A pair of seniors lead a balanced scoring attacked for the Knights. Louke Oakley (Whitby, ONT) tops the Clarkson scoring charts with 18 points on eight goals and 10 assists. Tremblay follows with 15 points, including a team-high nine goals. Seven players post double figures in the points column for Clarkson and 16 players have tallied at least one goal. Playing in his first games since October 29, Sexton showed what the Knights were missing during his absence. He played two solid games in Florida, scored two goals, including a power-play marker and was named to the All-Tournament team.

Senior goaltender Paul Karpowich, considered Clarkson’s MVP through the first half of the season, missed the Florida Tournament with an illness, snapping his streak of consecutive starts at 43 games. Prior to last week, Karpowich had played every minute in the Clarkson goal through the first 20 games. Playing in 1,210:24 minutes, Karpowich ranks among the Top 10 netminders in the NCAA. He posts the second best save percentage in Division1 (.938) and is ranked seventh in goals against average (1.93). Karpowich is tied for second in the nation in shutouts with five.

North Dakota, guided by head coach Dave Hakstol, enters Saturday’s game unbeaten in its last four outings (3-0-1) and holding a 10-8-2 overall record. Perennially regarded among the top teams in the country, UND is ranked 19th in the latest USCHO.com poll. UND owns a sixth-place, 7-7-0 WCHA mark. North Dakota tied (4-4) and defeated (7-3) Harvard this past weekend in Grand Rapids.

The Series:
Clarkson has lost all six previous meetings against North Dakota, having been outscored by UND 28-11 in the series, which first started in the NCAA Tournament. North Dakota swept the Knights in a 1982 NCAA first-round total-goal series, defeating the Green and Gold 5-2, 2-1 at the old Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks on March 19-20. In their last meetings UND swept Clarkson at Cheel Arena, winning 4-1 and 6-5 on October 29-30, 1999. There have been no shutouts between the teams.

Knight Notes:
After missing the previous 12 games with an injury Ben Sexton was impressive in his return at the Florida College Classic. In Friday’s game against Cornell, the Knights’ assistant captain recorded his first career two-goal game. Sexton was named to the Florida College Classic All-Tournament Team. He connected for a power-play goal giving him a team-high four for the year. Sexton, a 2009, 7th-round draft choice of Boston, has 11 points on five goals and six assists through 10 games. Eight of Sexton’s 11 points have come on the power play. With Sexton in the lineup through the season’s first eight games, Clarkson’s power-play was clicking at .27% (12-44). Since November 4 through December 10 when he was out of the lineup, the Knights scored just four times on the man-advantage in 50 chances (.08%) … For the season, Clarkson is 18-105, .17.1% on the power play. The Knights were 2-of-4 with the man-advantage against Cornell in Florida, the first time they had two power-play goals in a game since going 2-of-7 in a 5-0 win over AIC on October 22 … For the first time since November 26, 2010, Paul Karpowich was not the starting goaltender in the Clarkson crease. He missed the Florida tournament with an illness, halting his streak of consecutive starts at 43. The 2008 St. Louis Blues NHL Draft choice (7th rd, 185) is ranked among the national leaders in save percentage - .938 (2nd) and goals against average -1.93 (7th). With Karpowich playing every minute in the Knights’ crease through the first 20 games, Clarkson posted five shutouts, the most for the Green and Gold since the 2007-08 campaign when the team notched six whitewashes. Karpowich, who was named ECAC Hockey/Fischer Hockey Goaltender of the Month for October, is closing in on the all-time save record at Clarkson with 3,235 through 113 games. The Knights’ all-time record is 3,375 saves by Dan Murphy ’98 in 135 games from 1994-98. Karpowich was named the goaltender on INSIDECOLLEGEHOCKEY.com’s FIRST HALF ALL-ECAC HOCKEY TEAM … Junior Cody Rosen (Kingston, ONT) got the start in last Thursday’s game against Maine for his second career start and first showing in the Clarkson crease since an appearance in the third period against Union on January 8, 2011. Against Maine, he made 15 saves on 19 shots through 27:30 … Senior Richie LaVeau (Arlington Heights, IL), who played the final 32:30 against the Black Bears, started in goal the next day against Cornell and turned aside 23 of 27 shots by the Big Red. LaVeau was making his 17th career start and first since January 16, 2010 … With three freshmen, two sophomores and two juniors on the blueline, Clarkson is allowing only 2.36 goals per game, 12th-best in the NCAA … Rookie defenseman Kevin Tansey (Hammond, ONT) leads the Green and Gold in plus/minus at +10 … Freshman defenseman James Howden (Edgeley, SASK) has been steady with a +7 … Rookie rearguard Sam Labrecque (Granby, ONT) provides the offense from the blueline with 13 points (2-11) … Clarkson’s Grind Line of senior center Corey Tamblyn (Bobcaygeon, ONT) (+5), senior left wing Jake Morley (+5) and sophomore right wing Will Frederick (Allison Park, PA) (+7) has combined for a +17 playing against opposing teams’ top lines … The Knights are 8-1-1 when scoring first and 9-0-2 when leading after 40 minutes … The Knights have played opponents five times this season on neutral ice – in Alaska, Maine, Lake Placid and Florida (2) – and are 0-5 having been outscored 22-9 ... Current Winnipeg defenseman Randy Jones played two seasons at Clarkson, recording 53 points (22-31) through 68 games in 2001-03 ... Former Clarkson All-American, Luciano Borsato '88  played 203 NHL games for Winnipeg from 1990-95. He scored 35 goals and 55 assists for the Jets. At Clarkson, he ranks as one of the Knights’ all-time leading scorers having amassed 170 points (63-107) in 129 games from 1984-88 ... This will be Clarkson’s first time playing a game in Canada since January 7, 2006 when the Knights defeated St. Lawrence 6-2 at the Corel Centre in Ottawa.