Winners of the 2014 NCAA National Championship, the Clarkson University Women's Hockey team begins defense of its title in 2014-15 when the 12th season in the program's history begins in early October.

Guided by seventh-year head coach Matt Desrosiers and assistant Matt Kelly, the Golden Knights will face a challenging 34-game regular-season schedule, featuring the 22-game ECAC Hockey slate, eight contests against teams from last year's NCAA Tournament and four meetings against archrival St. Lawrence University. Clarkson, which will host 15 games at Cheel Arena, will also play in it's first-ever in-season tournament.

• on-line 2014-15 Clarkson Women's Hockey schedule

"We look forward to the challenge of defending our national title this season," said Desrosiers. "We know every team will be bringing their "A" game against us. The 22-game ECAC Hockey schedule will once again be extremely competitive and our out-of-conference games, highlighted by the program's first-ever in-season tournament and our weekend series at Wisconsin, will be very challenging. It should be an exciting year at Cheel Arena, starting with our National Championship Banner Raising ceremony prior to our home-opener against St. Lawrence. Our fan support was great last year and we will strive to give our loyal followers more reason to cheer this year."

The Knights get things rolling with a home-and-home, non-league series against St. Lawrence. Clarkson raises its NCAA Championship banner when it hosts the Saints on Saturday, October 4 in the home-opener at Cheel after facing its rival in Canton the previous night.

Two series against Hockey East competition follow with Clarkson traveling to Providence College on October 11-12 before returning to Potsdam to host perennial NCAA power Boston University on October 17-18. Another weekend set completes the non-league, opening portion of the schedule with the Green and Gold battling Syracuse University of College Hockey America in a home-and-home series on October 24-25.

Clarkson, which won the ECAC Hockey regular season title last year, begins play in the highly competitive 12-team conference, on Tuesday, October 28 hosting St. Lawrence.

Over the Thanksgiving Holiday break, the Knights will compete in the Nutmeg Classic, hosted by the University of Connecticut in Storrs. Clarkson will battle UConn, Quinnipiac and Yale for the tournament crown on November 28-29.

In its final non-league games of the regular season, Clarkson will face traditional WCHA and NCAA powerhouse the University of Wisconsin in a weekend series in Madison, WI on January 23-24.

The Green and Gold open the 2015 portion of the schedule with an exhibition game against McGill University on January 3.

Playoff hockey begins on February 27 with the quarterfinal round of the ECAC Hockey Tournament. The league's championship weekend will be held on March 6-7 at the campus site of the highest remaining seed in the eight-team tournament. NCAA postseason play concludes on Sunday, March 22 with the 15th Annual Frozen Four at Ridder Arena on the campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

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

Cheel Arena Box Office: 315-268-7750