Coming off a very impressive weekend sweep of traditional ECAC Hockey powers, the Clarkson University Women’s Hockey team will look to continue its strong play when it battles archrival St. Lawrence University in a home-and-home series. Guided by fifth-year co-head coaches Matt and Shannon Desrosiers and assistant coach Matt Kelly, the Golden Knights face off against the Saints at Cheel Arena on Friday afternoon beginning at 3:00 p.m. and then visit Appleton Arena in Canton on Saturday for another 3:00 p.m. matchup against St. Lawrence. Clarkson will hold a funraiser during Friday’s game, benefiting the Helping Hands Foundation.

Led by junior captain Carly Mercer (Exeter, ONT) and senior assistant captain Hailey Wood (Lethbridge, ALB), Clarkson is ranked sixth in the national polls with a 20-6 overall record and is tied for second place, along with Cornell, in the ECAC Hockey standings with a 12-2 league mark. The Green and Gold are four points behind league-leader Harvard with eight games remaining on their regular-season schedule.

Playing at home for the first time since early January, Clarkson was dominant last weekend, skating past second-ranked Harvard 3-1 on Friday and overwhelming Dartmouth 5-0 on Saturday.Mercer paced the Knights offensively in the weekend sweep and was named ECAC Hockey Player of the Week for her efforts. Mercer recorded her first career hat trick, scoring all three Clarkson goals in the victory over the Crimson. She also tallied on the power play in the win against the Big Green.

Selected ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week for the fifth time this season, junior Erica Howe (Ottawa, ONT) backboned the Knights with another solid effort between the pipes. Howe turned aside 18 shots in shutting down the high-powered Harvard offense and became Clarkson’s all-time win leader (50 victories). She recorded 22 stops against Dartmouth. Howe posts the eighth best save percentage (.934) and goal against average (1.65) in the country.

Junior Jamie Lee Rattray (Kanata, ONT), who recorded five assists on the weekend, leads the Green and Gold in scoring with 38 points on 16 goals and 22 assists. Rattray became the sixth Golden Knight all-time to reach the century mark. She has 101 career points (42-59).

Mercer is bidding to join Rattray in the exclusive club. She has 99 career points (35-64), including 13 goals and 22 assists this season.

The top scoring rookie defenseman in the country, Erin Ambrose (Keswick, ONT) quarterbacks the Clarkson attack from the blueline. She has 26 points, including a team-high 24 assists.

St. Lawrence, guided by head coach Chris Wells, owns a 14-10-2 overall record and holds down fourth place in the league standings with a 9-4-1 ECAC Hockey mark. The Saints edged Dartmouth 2-1 this past Friday at Appleton Arena and came up just short against Harvard, falling to the Crimson 3-2 in overtime. St. Lawrence, which was swept by the Knights in early October in a pair of non-conference games (1-0, 3-2), is 5-4-2 in games outside Canton.