In his first season as a Division I head coach Casey Jones will certainly accumulate a number of frequent flier miles as he guides the Clarkson University Hockey team through an ambitious schedule, which will consist of plenty of air travel. Included in the Golden Knights' journeys during the 2011-12 campaign will be a pair of lengthy trips outside the contiguous United States, travel to Southwest Florida, a visit to Maine and another appearance in Lake Placid.

“We really have an interesting non-league schedule this season,” stated Jones. “We have fantastic opportunities to showcase Clarkson hockey throughout a number of different regions. The schedule lines up pretty well. We have a nice, long trip to get the coaching staff and team acclimated to each other, and a stretch of non-league play that will give us a good assessment of our team prior to the start of the highly competitive ECAC Hockey campaign. We are looking for good challenges to gage ourselves for what we need to do to be where we want to be at the end of the year, and I think this year’s schedule provides us those opportunities.”

Clarkson opens its 90th season of hockey with its first ever trip to America’s 49th state when the Green and Gold play at the University of Alaska-Anchorage in the Kendall Classic on October 7-8. The Knights will take on the host Seawolves on the first night at Sullivan Arena in Anchorage and then play Alaska-Fairbanks on Saturday. Clarkson will actually play two games in one day going by Eastern Standard Time. The Knights play the first game against UAA at 12:07 a.m. early on Saturday and will faceoff later that day against UAF at 8:00 p.m. l

During the Thanksgiving Holiday, Clarkson will faceoff against Hockey East foe the University of Maine in Portland, ME on Saturday, November 26 at the Cumberland County Civic Center, followed by a Sunday evening contest at Holy Cross. Prior to the exam/holiday break, Clarkson will battle arch-rival St. Lawrence University on December 10 at the 1980 Rink Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid for the second straight year in a non-conference affair.

Between semesters in late December, the Knights will make their third appearance in the Florida College Classic at Germain Arena in Estero, FL. On Thursday and Friday, December 29 and 30, Clarkson will face Maine in the opening day of the tournament and then play Cornell or UMass in either the championship or consolation game the second night.

The Knights continue their travels to open the New Year on January 7 when they faceoff against national powerhouse North Dakota at the MTS Centre in downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba for the final non-league contest of the 36-game schedule.

Clarkson will face a heavy dose of Atlantic Hockey action to start the season with six consecutive games against AH foes prior to the start of the ECAC Hockey schedule. The Knights begin their 21st campaign at Cheel Arena on October 14 with a two-game series against Sacred Heart University. The following weekend, the Green and Gold host America International for a pair of games. A two-game set at Bentley University on October 28-29 closes out the opening portion of the non-league schedule.

Clarkson begins conference action when it hosts rival Rensselaer in Potsdam on November 4 for the first of six straight ECAC Hockey games.

Along with the non-league matchup against St. Lawrence in Lake Placid, the Green and Gold will battle their archrival in two ECAC Hockey games, in Canton on December 6 and in Potsdam on January 21.

Prior to the official start of the 2011-12 campaign, Clarkson will host the University of Ottawa in exhibition contest on Sunday, October 2 in the first of 16 games at Cheel Arena this season.

Playoff hockey begins on March 2-4 with the first round of the ECAC Hockey tournament, while the quarterfinal round will be held on March 9-11. The league's championship weekend will return to Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ on March 16-17.

NCAA postseason play concludes on Saturday, April 7 with the 65th Annual Frozen Four at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, FL.