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Men's Hockey

Golden Knights Back in NCAA Tournament

photo by Connor Koehler

A Top-10 team throughout the majority of the 2017-18 campaign Clarkson University is back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 10 years, earning the No. 3 seed in the East Regional.

The Golden Knights will face off against Providence College on Friday, March 23 at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Conn. Game time is 6:30 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ESPNU. Rounding out the four-team East Regional are Notre Dame and Michigan Tech.

The Knights defeated Providence twice this season, winning 4-0 at Cheel Arena on October 21 and 4-2 in the Championship Game of the Friendship Four in Belfast, Northern Ireland on November 25.

The Knights, guided by seventh-year head coach Casey Jones and assistants Phil Roy '00 and Josh Hauge, own a 23-10-6 record. Clarkson played in two overtime games at the ECAC Hockey Championship Tournament in Lake Placid last weekend, falling just short of claiming the coveted Whitelaw Trophy. Clarkson rallied for a 5-4 overtime win against Harvard in the semifinals on Friday before falling 2-1 in overtime to Princeton in Saturday's championship game.
 

• Clarkson has made 20 previous appearances in the NCAA Tournament, posting a record of 13-24-1.
• The Knights made back-to-back showings in 2007 and 2008 for their only appearances in the 2000s. During the 1990s, the Green and Gold were a regular fixture in the tournament, qualifying nine out of 10 years.
• Since regional play began in 1992, Clarkson has gone 2-11 in the tournament. 
• In its last appearance on the national stage, Clarkson defeated St. Cloud State (2-1) before losing to Michigan (2-0) in the 2008 East Regional in Albany, N.Y.
• The Knights are 5-11-1 in first round games, 2-6 in the quarterfinals and 3-4 in semifinal play. Clarkson is 0-3 in NCAA Championship games, having last played for the national title in 1970, falling to Cornell 6-4 in Lake Placid.
• Clarkson's last showing in the NCAA Frozen Four was in 1991 when the Green and Gold lost to Boston University 7-3 at the Saint Paul Civic Center in St. Paul, Minn. 
•    The Knights are unbeaten in their last six games (5-0-1) against Providence and lead the all-time series 36-16-2. Clarkson defeated the Friars twice this season, winning 4-0 at Cheel Arena on October 21 and 4-2 in the Championship Game of the Friendship Four in Belfast, Northern Ireland on November 25. Providence's last win in the series was a 4-2 victory at Schneider Arena on October 8, 2004.
•    The Knights' 23 wins through 39 games this season are the most victories for Clarkson since the 2006-07 team posted a 25-9-5 record.
•    Clarkson boasts the second-rated defense in the nation, allowing only 1.90 goals per game.  The 74 goals the Knights have allowed is the lowest goals surrendered by the Green and Gold since the 1965-66 team gave up 71 through 27 games. The Knights have posted nine shutouts on the year, the most ever in a single season at Clarkson.
•    A Top-10 Finalist for the 2018 Mike Richter Award, which honors the most outstanding goaltender in NCAA men's hockey, and a finalist for ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Year, sophomore Jake Kielly established a new Clarkson record for shutouts in a season by blanking Colgate in Game 2 of ECAC Quarterfinal series for his eighth whitewash of the 2017-18 campaign. He broke the previous mark of seven set by Wayne Gibbons in 1961-62. The school record for most career shutouts is 16. Kielly has 11 in two seasons. Starting 37 of 39 games, Kielly ranks fourth in the nation in goals against average (1.84), eighth in save percentage (.928) and is tied for second in shutouts.
•    Clarkson is fifth in the nation in scoring margin at 1.23 goals per game. The Knights have outscored their opponents in every period this season with the closest margin coming in the first period, 42-27. The Green and Gold have almost doubled up the opposition in the middle frame, outscoring their foes 45-25 in the second period.
•    Clarkson outscored its opponents 16-8 in five ECAC Hockey playoff games. 
•    Trailing 4-1 just six seconds into the third period of Friday's ECAC Hockey Semifinal game against Harvard, the Knights stormed back with three goals in a span of 3:47 to tie the game 4-4,  and then won their first overtime contest of the season as sophomore Sheldon Rempal, Clarkson's leading scorer, tallied at 11:38 of the extra session.
•    Clarkson had a flair for the dramatic again in Saturday's ECAC Hockey Championship game vs. Princeton, forcing overtime with its lone goal of the night coming with just 6.4 seconds left in regulation. The Tigers, however, scored at 2:37 of overtime to claim the Whitelaw trophy as tournament champions.
•    The Knights are averaging 3.13 goals per game, ranking 14th in the nation in offense. 
•    The eighth-leading goal scorer in the country, Sheldon Rempal has tallied 23 goals, the most at Clarkson since Todd  White ' 97  produced 38 in 1996-97.  The right wing's 46 points are the most by a Golden Knight since White tallied 74 in 1996-97. He is tied for second in the nation in game-winning goals (5) and is tied for second on the team in power-play markers with six. Rempal has recorded 16 points (5-11) over his last nine games. He has accumulated 69 career points (34-35) in 77 games. Rempal was named to ECAC Hockey Championship All-Tournament Team.
• ECAC Hockey's Best Defensive Forward, Nico Sturm continues to lead the nation in the faceoff category, winning 61.9% of his draws (433-267). He is the Knights' second leading scorer with 37 points on 14 goals and 23 assists. Sturm has connected for five power-play goals, three game-winners, both of Clarkson's shorthanded tallies, and posts a +20 plus/minus. The sophomore center has recorded 10 points (4-6) over the past eight games. 
• Left wing Devin Brosseau rounds out the Sophomore Line as another 30-point scorer for the Green and Gold. The assistant captain has tallied 33 points, including 22 assists, along with posting a +16 plus/minus rating. Six of his 11 goals have come on the power play.
•    A finalist for ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Year, Jack Jacome has tallied eight goals and 21 assists for 29 points, the most by a Clarkson rookie since Rob McFeeters '04 put up 30 points in the 2000-01 campaign. 
•    The Knights went 11-3-5 at home and 9-6-1 on the road. Clarkson is 3-1-0 in neutral site games.
•    Clarkson highlights one of the top defensive pairings in the nation in senior blueliners Kelly Summers and Terrance Amorosa. 
• A finalist for the league's Best Defensive Defenseman award, Summers leads the Knights' blueline in scoring with 30 points, the most points by a Clarkson defenseman since Randy Jones '03 put up 33 points in 2002-03. He is Clarkson's leading playmaker with 24 assists.  The 2014 Ottawa Senators' draftee is the Knights' fourth-leading scorer, post a +19 plus/minus rating, has tallied three power-play goals and two gamewinners while leading the team in blocked shots (54). Summers was named to ECAC Hockey Championship All-Tournament Team.
•  A 2013 Philadelphia Flyers' draft choice, Amorosa has recorded 27 points with all seven of his goals coming on the power play. He posts a team-high +22 rating and has netted two game-winners.
• Josh Dickinson rounds out Clarkson's 20-point scorers. He is tied for fourth in the nation for goals scored by a freshman with 15 tallies to go along with 11 assists. He scored the tying goal in Saturday's ECAC Hockey Championship game against Princeton on a tip-in at the top of the crease with 6.4 seconds to go in regulation. Dickinson is a key member of the Green and Gold's power play, connecting six times on the man-advantage. The center leads the country in blocked shots by a rookie forward with 41.
• The Knights are fifth in the nation in combined specialty teams play at 54.5% (170/312).
• Clarkson's power play is fourth in the country, clicking at 26.2% (42-160). The Knights went 2-of-8 on the man-advantage over the league's championship weekend in Lake Placid.
• The Knights' penalty kill is 10th in the NCAA at 84.2% (128-152).
• Clarkson picked up its first win of the year when trailing after two periods in this past Saturday's 5-4 overtime victory against Harvard in the ECAC Hockey semifinals. With their season on the brink, the Green and Gold rallied from a 3-1 two-period deficit that became a 4-1 hole just six seconds into the third. The Knights
stormed back with three goals in a span of 3:47 to tie the game 4-4,  and then won their first overtime game of the season for a victory that clinched a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
• Clarkson's captain Nic Pierog started the third-period comeback, scoring just nine seconds after Harvard's fourth goal. Pierog, along with assistant captains senior Brett Gervais and sophomore Devin Brosseau, has led the Knights back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2008.  A center, Pierog has scored five goals and nine assists through 37 games and posts a +10 plus/minus rating. He tallied the opening goal and had one assist in the quarterfinal-series clinching win over Colgate for his first multiple-point game of the season. Pierog, who completed his undergraduate degree in finance in three years at Clarkson in May 2017, is working towards his MBA. After wearing #20 through his first three years, he wears the #6 this season, becoming the first Golden Knight to honor this jersey since the late Clarkson captain Mike Morrison in 1988-89. Pierog also heads up Clarkson Hockey's Headway Foundation efforts for concussion awareness.
• Clarkson has played in 15 games that have been decided by three goals or more, going 13-2. The Knights have skated in six games where they scored more than four goals, including a pair of six-goal outings.
• The Knights are 3-6-6 in games decided by one-goal-or-less, and 1-1-6 in overtime contests.
• The Knights are 15-0-1 when leading after the first and 22-1-2 when holding the lead through 40 minutes. 
•    Clarkson experienced two lengthy streaks during the regular season. The Knights posted the second-longest winning streak in the program's 96-year history with 14 consecutive victories from November 3 through January 13. The Green and Gold also endured an eight-game winless stretch (0-4-4) from January 27 through February 23, the longest number of games without a win since midway through the 2009-10 campaign (0-8-1).
•    After a lengthy drought in in-season tournaments, Clarkson has won its past two Thanksgiving Holiday tournaments, with championship game victories over two of the teams in this year's NCAA East Regional. The Knights shut out Notre Dame, 2-0, to claim the championship crown of the 2016 Shillelagh Tournament in South Bend, IN. This season the Green and Gold skated past Providence 4-2 in the title game of the Friendship Four in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
• Clarkson all-star goaltender David Leggio '08 was a member of the United States Men's Olympic Hockey team at the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. Leggio established himself as one of the best goaltenders in Clarkson's illustrious history, playing for the Golden Knights from 2004-08. He helped the the Green and Gold compile 78 victories from 2004-2008, two back-to-back 20-win campaigns (2006-07, 2007-08) for the first time in 10 seasons, an ECAC Hockey Tournament Championship (2007) and a conference regular season title (2008) along with making two consecutive showings in the NCAA Tournament (2007, 2008). He posted a 59-29-12 career record, including eight shutouts. Leggio completed his collegiate career with a .922 save percentage and a 2.30 goals against average.
• Clarkson is 5-2-2 against the other teams in this year's NCAA Tournament. The Knights went 5-3-1 against teams ranked in the Top 20 of the national polls this season.
• In its 96th season, Clarkson boasts 73 winning campaigns and a 1,436-861-160 all-time record for a .617 winning % since 1920-21.


 
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Players Mentioned

Terrance Amorosa

#44 Terrance Amorosa

D
6' 2"
Senior
Devin Brosseau

#14 Devin Brosseau

F
6' 1"
Sophomore
Brett Gervais

#19 Brett Gervais

F
5' 10"
Senior
Jake Kielly

#29 Jake Kielly

G
6' 2"
Sophomore
Nic Pierog

#6 Nic Pierog

F
6' 1"
Senior
Sheldon Rempal

#11 Sheldon Rempal

F
5' 10"
Sophomore
Nico Sturm

#17 Nico Sturm

F
6' 3"
Sophomore
Kelly Summers

#5 Kelly Summers

D
6' 1"
Senior
Jack Jacome

#16 Jack Jacome

F
5' 7"
Freshman
Josh Dickinson

#21 Josh Dickinson

F
6' 2"
Freshman

Players Mentioned

Terrance Amorosa

#44 Terrance Amorosa

6' 2"
Senior
D
Devin Brosseau

#14 Devin Brosseau

6' 1"
Sophomore
F
Brett Gervais

#19 Brett Gervais

5' 10"
Senior
F
Jake Kielly

#29 Jake Kielly

6' 2"
Sophomore
G
Nic Pierog

#6 Nic Pierog

6' 1"
Senior
F
Sheldon Rempal

#11 Sheldon Rempal

5' 10"
Sophomore
F
Nico Sturm

#17 Nico Sturm

6' 3"
Sophomore
F
Kelly Summers

#5 Kelly Summers

6' 1"
Senior
D
Jack Jacome

#16 Jack Jacome

5' 7"
Freshman
F
Josh Dickinson

#21 Josh Dickinson

6' 2"
Freshman
F