After playing the most games in the NCAA to start the 2013-14 campaign the Clarkson University Hockey team will take the next couple of weeks off before resuming ECAC Hockey action against its archrival.

The Golden Knights, guided by third-year head coach Casey Jones and assistants Phil Roy '00 and Andy Jones, have enjoyed one of the best starts in the program's 92-year history with a 10-3-1 record entering their break. Ranked 10th and 11th in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine and USCHO.com national polls, respectively, the Green and Gold are tied for third in the ECAC Hockey standings with a 4-2 league mark.

Clarkson is now off until an exhibition game against Queen's University on Sunday, December 1. The Knights, led by senior captain Ben Sexton (Kanata, ONT), resume NCAA play when they battle St. Lawrence University in a North Country home-and-home series on December 6-7. Clarkson hosts the Saints at Cheel Arena in the Friday game and then travels 10 miles down Route 11 on Saturday to take on St. Lawrence at Appleton Arena in Canton. The Green and Gold have gone 7-2-1 against their neighbor over the past 10 meetings.

While the Knights can reflect back upon a highly successful start to the year, their final game before the break will provide incentive to close out strong every game remaining in the season.

Clarkson saw a three-game winning streak come to a halt in this past Saturday's contest against Colgate in Potsdam. The Raiders scored three unanswered goals in the third period to hand the Knights their first one-goal loss of the season at 4-3. After defeating Cornell the previous night, Clarkson was on the verge of a weekend sweep of its Central NY rivals, holding a 3-2 lead over the Raiders and starting a five-minute power play with less than eight minutes to play. The Knights, however, skated only 55 seconds with the man-advantage before taking a penalty. With both teams skating 4-on-4, Colgate netted a pair of goals 29 seconds apart to gain the road win. Sophomore defenseman Paul Geiger (Stouffville, ONT), classmate Jeff DiNallo (Aurora, ONT) and senior Jarrett Burton (Echo Bay, ONT) tallied goals to give Clarkson a 3-1 lead through 40 minutes.

On Friday, the late-game heroics continued for the Green and Gold as senior Allan McPherson (Kinburn, ONT) scored in the final seconds for his second goal of the night to lift Clarkson to a 3-2 victory over Cornell. McPherson, who scored with two minutes remaining in the previous Saturday's 2-1 victory at Harvard, came through again with his team-high seventh goal of the year. With just 37.3 seconds left in regulation, the veteran center gathered in a rebound at the right circle and fired in a shot just underneath the crossbar for his third game-winner of the season and 12th career winner. Sexton also scored in the game between the two long-time rivals, which saw the Knights outshoot the Big Red 26-11. Cornell was able to stay close because of the effectiveness of its highly-rated power play, which went 2-of-4.

Queen's University, out of Kingston, Ontario, holds a 6-3 record and will play four more games before facing Clarkson. The Knights and Gaels last played during the 1978-79 season. Clarkson leads the all-time series 24-6-2.

Knight Notes:

At 10-3-1, Clarkson has already surpassed the victory total from the 2012-13 campaign and is off to one its best starts in decades, currently tied for the sixth best winning percentage in the country (.750) … Clarkson has gone 7-1-1 in one-goal games this year after winning just three times in 17 of those contests in 2012-13 … Four of this year's one-goal victories have come in the final minutes of play – two by Allan McPherson. The veteran center scored his second consecutive game-winner late in regulation when he netted his team-high seventh goal of the year with 37.3 seconds left in the 3-2 victory over Cornell. He also scored with two minutes remaining in the 2-1 triumph at Harvard (11/9) in the previous game. McPherson has three game-winners on the year, having also scored the deciding goal in the 2-1 victory over Colorado College (10/25). He has 12 career game-winners … Freshman A.J. Fossen (Maple Grove, MN) tallied the game-winner with 1:53 left in 4-3 win at Brown (11/1) and junior Joe Zarbo (Grand Island, NY) scored with 9.9 seconds left in overtime to lift the Green and Gold to a 1-0 win against Colorado College (10/26) … Eighteen Knights have scored a goal this season and 20 players have accounted for at least one point … Five different players accounted for Clarkson's six goals this past weekend … Ben Sexton paces the offense with 13 points, including a team-high 10 assists … McPherson is the only other Knights recording double figures in the point column with 11 (7-4) … Jeff DiNallo extended his point-scoring streak to three games with one goal and two assists on the weekend. He posted his first multiple-point outing with a goal and an assist against Colgate on Saturday. DiNallo has already surpasses his totals from last year (2-2-4) with three goals and five assists through 12 games this season … Clarkson has won the most face offs in the country (503) and is winning .553% of its draws … Sexton has won more face offs than any other player in the country (177) and is winning .602% of his draws ...Clarkson is getting ample scoring production from the blueline with the Knights' six defensemen accounting for 25% of the offense with eight goals and 19 assists … The Cornell game was only the second time this season the defensemen did not register a point. They did however, play a leading role in limiting the Big Red to just 11 shots (four of which came on the power play) … Paul Geiger (Stouffville, ONT) leads the defensemen in scoring with nine points (2-7) … Freshman blueliner James de Haas (Mississauga, ONT) has scored five points (2-3), sharing the team's rookie scoring lead with Fossen … Clarkson has outshot all but three opponents through the first 14 games … Sophomore Greg Lewis (Mars, PA) has started the last four games for the Knights' in goal and nine overall. He holds a .912 save percentage and a 2.11 goals against average en route to a 7-2 record.