Coming off its best season in six years, the Clarkson University Men's Hockey team will look to build upon the momentum generated last winter when it opens its 93rd season of play in 2014-15. The Golden Knights, guided by fourth-year head coach Casey Jones and assistant Phil Roy '00 and Andy Jones, will face a challenging 34-game regular-season schedule, including 16 games at Cheel Arena. Clarkson will play eight games against four schools that participated in the 2014 NCAA Tournament, including a pair of ECAC Hockey contests against the defending national champions.

• on-line 2014-15 Clarkson Hockey schedule

The Knights, who posted a 21-17-4 overall record in 2013-14, open the regular season with three straight road games. Clarkson officially begins the season with a weekend trip to western New York. The Green and Gold play at Niagara University on Friday, October 10, followed by a game at RIT's brand new Gene Polisseni Center on October 11. A home-and-home series against 2014 NCAA participant University of Vermont is next with the Knights playing at Gutterson Fieldhouse in Burlington on October 17 and hosting the Catamounts in the home opener at Cheel Arena on October 18. A two-game set in Potsdam against Bowling Green State University follows on the weekend of October 24-25.

"We are very excited about our schedule and for another season of hockey at Cheel ," stated Casey Jones. "Couple our non-conference games with our ECAC league campaign, and I think we have a challenging schedule with a lot of flavor on it this year. The teams coming into Cheel makes for an entertaining home schedule for our fans. ECAC Hockey is currently enjoying great success nationally as a conference with the past two NCAA Champions, and It looks like to be a very competitive conference again this year. With the development of our league from top to bottom, it is a challenge each and every night as ECAC Hockey has never been better."

Clarkson will play four games against archrival St. Lawrence University, beginning with a North Country home-and-home, non-league weekend series. The Knights will play at Appleton Arena on October 31 and host the Saints at Cheel on November 1 in the final non-league game before conference play begins. Clarkson will play an ECAC Hockey game at St. Lawrence on Saturday, December 6 and host the Saints in league play on Saturday, January 31. The Green and Gold extended their ECAC Hockey unbeaten streak over their archrival to eight games (7-0-1) with a pair of victories (5-4, 4-3) last year. Clarkson has gone 9-1-1 against the Saints over the past four years and has not lost a game at Appleton Arena since 2010. The Knights lead the all-time series against St. Lawrence 120-65-10.

"Every year the task of getting 12 non-conference games can be difficult, but we are fortunate this year to schedule several games against traditional local rivals, St. Lawrence and Vermont," remarked Jones. "The opportunity to play SLU in a non-conference series and extend that rivalry to four games in a season will be great for the North Country and our fans. We are also very excited to start an annual non-conference series with Vermont, an old traditional ECAC rival just a few of hours away, with a home-and-home weekend this season. I am real excited about those two opportunities. Additionally, Bowling Green was a top 4 team in the WCHA last year and appears to be even better this year. So having them play at Cheel over Parents Weekend should provide some great hockey. "

The Knights round out their non-league schedule with a two-game set at Merrimack College on November 28-29, at Michigan State on December 14 and a home game against American International College on December 30.

"We always try to get as many leagues as we can on our schedule on an annual basis," said Jones. "We have a good mix of opponents this season and we are looking forward to the challenge that our 2014-15 schedule presents us."

The 22-game ECAC Hockey campaign begins for Clarkson on November 7 when the Knights open a four-game conference road trip against 2013 NCAA National Champion Yale University at Ingalls Rink in New Haven, CT.

The regular season comes to a close on February 28 when Clarkson plays at 2014 NCAA National Champion Union College at Messa Rink in Schenectady, NY.

Playoff hockey begins on March 6-8 with the first round of the ECAC Hockey tournament, while the quarterfinal round will be held on March 13-15. The league's championship weekend will return to Lake Placid where the tournament championship will be decided at the 1980 Rink - Herb Brooks Arena on March 20-21.

NCAA postseason play concludes with 68th Annual Frozen Four on April 9 and April 11 at the TD Garden in Boston.

The Knights get an early jump to the season with an exhibition contest against Canadian college foe Queen's University on Sunday, October 5 at 2:30 p.m. at Cheel.

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

Clarkson posts an impressive 1,363-800-141 overall record since the 1920-21 campaign for an all-time winning percentage of .622, 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.

Cheel Arena Box Office: 315-268-7750