Clarkson Notes

The Golden Knights are leaving early tomorrow morning to make the trip to face Minnesota-Duluth in a pair of nonconference games this weekend.

There will be plenty of bus time ahead for Clarkson, which has to take the two-hour drive down to Syracuse to catch their flight. Clarkson will make a stop in Detroit and land in Minneapolis and will catch another two-hour bus ride to Duluth.

Today's notes will be abbreviated because I was not able to make my usual weekly visit to practice. I had to go to SUNY Potsdam and talk with former Clarkson goalie Chris Bernard, the new head coach of the Bears' men's program. That season preview will run Friday in our paper.

Saturday Recap

Because video was posted Saturday night the usual post-game recap was not done. I did not forget, I just wanted to have the video be the only post for a few days.

Here are Saturday's three stars:

No. 3: Bryan Rufenach: Rufenach had one goal and one assist and took seven shots. He also was even in the plus/minus department on defense.

No. 2: Nick Tremblay. The sophomore's quick wrist shot over the glove of Saints goalie Alex Petizian gave Clarkson a 3-1 lead and seemed to zap some of the energy from the Saints.

No. 1: Paul Karpowich. Clarkson's goalie stopped 30 of 31 shots, including 11 during power-play chances, to lead the Golden Knights to the win.

Quotes from Saturday

George Roll

"We had some timely goals on the power play and Paul was big in the net on the penalty kill. He made some big saves. When your goaltender is on like that, it makes your penalty kill look better. He was the difference tonight. He looked in control all night. He covered pucks up and he steered pucks to areas we couldn't get hurt in. It was clearly his best game."

Brandon DeFazio

"It's really exciting. It was a great game out there against SLU. I thought we came out prepared and ready to go. We knew they were going to come hard at us. We just crashed the net. It was old-time hockey."

Paul Karpowich on this weekend's road trip

"It's a chance to redeem myself. We didn't play our best hockey at Michigan State. Hopefully this weekend we can turn it around."

Final Note

There's a new ex-Golden Knight in the coaching profession. Madrid native Matt Curley, an assistant captain on Clarkson's 2007 ECAC Hockey championship team, is now working as an assistant coach at the National Sports Academy in Lake Placid.