A three-point weekend in the final ECAC Hockey regular season games at Cheel Arena has boosted the Clarkson University Hockey team into fourth place in the league standings with two games remaining on the schedule. Guided by first-year head coach Casey Jones and assistants Phil Roy ’00 and Andy Jones, the Golden Knights will look to lock up a top-four position and gain the first-round bye in the upcoming conference playoffs that comes with it when they travel to New England this weekend. Clarkson faces Dartmouth at Thompson Arena in Hanover, NH on Friday in a 7:30 p.m. face-off, and then battles Harvard at Bright Hockey Center in Cambridge, MA on Saturday at 7:00 p.m.

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Led by senior captain Jake Morley (Ogdensburg, NY) and assistant captains, grad student Nick Tremblay (Candiac, QUE) and sophomore Ben Sexton (Kanata, ONT), Clarkson owns a 15-13-6 overall record and a 9-7-4 conference mark. The Green and Gold, who need three points to lock up a first-round bye in the postseason, are one point behind third-place Colgate and one point ahead off fifth-place Harvard in the tightly packed standings. The Knights can finish anywhere from third to eighth in the conference.

Playing its two toughest opponents this past weekend, Clarkson came through with a pair of stingy defensive efforts, backed up in goal by senior Paul Karpowich (Thunder Bay, ONT), to close out the home portion of the schedule. On Friday, the Knights battled to a 1-1 tie with 12th-ranked Cornell as Karpowich posted 27 saves. Tremblay netted the tying goal late in regulation. Karpowich was once again in top form against Colgate, holding ECAC Hockey’s top offensive team scoreless until the final seconds in a 2-1 victory. Freshman defenseman James Howden (Edgeley, SASK) and sophomore Allan McPherson (Kinburn, ONT) provided the goals and Karpowich finished with 28 stops as the Green and Gold snapped a nine-game winless drought (0-7-2) against the Raiders.

Clarkson’s all-time save leader with 3,572 career stops, Karpowich is regarded as one of the top goaltenders in the country. Starting 32 games this season, the 2008 NHL Draft choice of the St. Louis Blues, posts a .925 save percentage, a 2.32 goals against average and a 15-11-6 record, including five shutouts (tied for the third most in the nation). Karpowich was named ECAC Goaltender of the Week.

Closing out their collegiate careers with a flurry, senior Louke Oakley (Whitby, ONT) and Tremblay lead the Knights offensively with 32 and 31 points, respectively. Oakley shares the team lead in assists with 18, while Tremblay has scored a team-high 15 goals. Sexton, who is recording over a point per game, follows with 25 points, including 18 assists, through 22 contests. McPherson rounds out the Green and Gold 20-point scorers with 10 goals and 10 assists. Freshman defenseman Sam Labrecque (Granby, QUE) powers the offense from the blueline with 18 points (6-12).

Dartmouth put an end to a lengthy winless skid (0-5-2) with a 4-1 victory at Brown on Saturday to stay in contention for a home-ice berth in the first round of the ECAC playoffs. The Big Green, guided by 15th-year head coach Bob Gaudet, own a 10-13-4 overall record and are in ninth place in the standings with a 7-10-3 conference slate. Dartmouth, which lost 5-3 at Yale on Friday, can finish anywhere from fifth-to-11th in the league. The Big Green are 6-6-2 at Thompson Arena this season.

One point behind Clarkson in the standings, prior to hosting St. Lawrence this Friday, Harvard was surging in the second half with a 4-1-5 mark before suffering a 7-1 defeat at Yale on Saturday. Guided by eighth-year head coach Ted Donato, the Crimson stand at 8-8-11 overall and are in fifth place in ECAC Hockey at 6-5-9. Harvard, which battled to a 3-3 draw at Brown last Friday, has set the NCAA record for most ties in a season. The Crimson are 4-4-3 at Bright Hockey Center in 2011-12.

The Series:

The Golden Knights hold an overwhelming 66-23-7 advantage all-time in the rivalry against Dartmouth, which began with a 4-1 Clarkson win on February 4, 1929. Clarkson has won two straight in the series, including a 4-0 shutout over the Big Green in their first meeting this season on November 19 at Cheel Arena. The team split last year with Dartmouth winning 7-1 in Potsdam on November 12, 2010 and the Knights posting a 4-1 victory in Hanover, NH on February 26. Clarkson is 2-0 in its last two visits to Thompson Arena.

Jake Morley has a team-high four goals against Dartmouth while Louke Oakley (1-3) also has four points in the series. Paul Karpowich is 3-1-1 and has played 313 minutes against Dartmouth with a .943 save percentage and a 2.30 GAA. Richie LaVeau is 1-0-0 against Dartmouth with a .861 save percentage and a 3.75 GAA through 80 minutes.

The Knights lead the series against Harvard, which began with a 2-1 Clarkson win in Lake Placid on December 28, 1935, 50-49-11. The Crimson, however, have gone 5-2-2 in the series over the past three and a half seasons, including victories in the last four meetings. Harvard edged the Green and Gold 3-2 at Cheel in the first meeting this season on November 18. The long-time ECAC rivals split the regular-season series in 2010-11 with each posting 3-1 wins on their home ice. The Knights skated past Harvard at Cheel Arena on November 13, 2010 and the Crimson won in Cambridge on February 25, 2011. Harvard then won for the first time in Potsdam since the start of the 2004 campaign, snapping an eight-game winless stretch (0-7-1) at Cheel, by sweeping the Green and Gold in the ECAC playoffs last year, winning 2-1 and 6-4 in a first-round series on March 4-5. Clarkson’s last victory (4-2) in Cambridge came on January 12, 2008.

Louke Oakley and Allan McPherson each have scored a team-high five points (1-4) in the series against Harvard. Paul Karpowich posts a .906 save percentage, a 2.72 goals against average and a 2-5-1 record through eight games against the Crimson. Richie LaVeau has played one game in the rivalry, earning a 3-3 tie on a .885 save percentage.

Knight Notes:

Clarkson, picked to finish 11th in the ECAC Hockey Preseason Coaches’ Poll, can finish anywhere from third to eighth in the league standings. The Knights have gone 6-3-2 in conference play during the New Year to guarantee themselves a home-ice berth in the postseason for the second consecutive year … Clarkson needs three points this weekend to secure a first-round bye in the playoffs for the first time 2008 … The Knights, who are 5-4-4 on opponent’s home ice this season, have won their last two games at Dartmouth and are 0-2-1 in their last three outings at Harvard … After allowing seven goals to Quinnipiac on February 11, the Knights came back this past weekend with two of their stingiest defensive efforts of the season, allowing only 57 shots and two goals combined against the 12th-ranked team in the nation Cornell on Friday and ECAC Hockey’s top offensive team Colgate on Saturday … The three-point weekend was Clarkson best showing against the central NY rivals since the 2007-08 campaign when the Green and Gold also gained three points … Clarkson’s 2-1 victory over Colgate snapped a nine-game winless skid (0-7-2) against the Raiders and was the Knights’ first regular season victory over Colgate in Potsdam since January 2003 … Paul Karpowich holds the program’s record for career saves at 3,572 through 125 games. He is tied for third in the country in shutouts with five, just missing out on his sixth when Colgate scored an extra attacker goal with 1.8 seconds left on Saturday. Karpowich posts a .925 save percentage and a 2.32 GAA … After a considerable goal-scoring drought midway through the season, Allan McPherson has regained his scoring touch and has tallied four goals over the past five games. He came through with the deciding goal in Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Colgate for his fifth game-winning goal of the season, which is tied for fourth most in the nation. He has 10 goals and 10 assists though 34 games as Clarkson’s fourth-leading scorer … Nick Tremblay tallied his team-high 15th goal of the year for the tying goal against Cornell on Friday. Tremblay, who had 16 goals total through his first three seasons combined, has tallied 31 points in 2011-12 and has 83 (31-52) through 138 career games. The 2008 Boston Bruins draft choice has recorded 16 points (6-10) over the past 12 games … Both Tremblay, against Cornell, and McPherson, against Colgate, scored with just two seconds left in a power play … Clarkson is 9-of-38 (23.6%) on the power play over the past 10 games and 27-155 (17%) for the season … Rookie defenseman James Howden picked up his second career goal by opening the scoring in Saturday’s victory over the Raiders … Louke Oakley leads the Knights in points with 32 and shares the team play-making lead with Ben Sexton with 18 assists. Oakley has tallied 14 points (6-8) over the past 10 games. He has 78 career points (23-55) through 131 games … Ben Sexton is averaging over a point per game with seven goals and 18 assists through 22 games. He has 16 points (4-12) in the past 13 games. Sexton headlines the Knights’ power-play with a team-high five goals and 15 points on the man-advantage ... The Knights are 11-1-2 when leading through 40 minutes.