Courtesy of Yale Athletics

The Yale men’s ice hockey team is set to face St. Lawrence University (6–13–5, 4–7–3 ECAC) on Friday at 4 p.m. and No. 20 Clarkson University(13–7–5, 9–1–1) on Saturday at 5 p.m. at Ingalls Rink.

The Bulldogs (5–12–1, 4–7–1 ECAC) look to begin a new winning streak, as their last was broken by two losses in the Connecticut on Ice Tournament last weekend. In their match against Sacred Heart University (10–13–3, 7–9–2 AHA), the Elis, who maintained an early lead, were edged out with a Pioneer goal in overtime.

“We’re excited to be back at Ingalls and play in front of the Yale faithful, in addition to our hunger for six points,” goalie Nate Reid ’24 said. 

In the tournament, forward Ian Carpentier ’24 had four goals and five points, earning titles of ECAC Player of the Week and Rookie of the Month for January. Over the course of the month, Carpentier posted six goals and eight points over six contests. 

Since their first meeting in the 1951-52 season, St. Lawrence has held a 60–38–12 advantage over the Elis. In their most recent meeting on Feb. 1, 2020, the two teams tied 2–2 in overtime. In the three games preceding, Yale dominated with winning scores of 5–3, 3–2 and 6–3. 

“Although we wanted to come away with two points, picking up a point is valuable nonetheless,” defenseman Mike Young ’23 told the News in 2020. “The past weekend highlights how much parity there is within the ECAC, as we faced the top team [Clarkson] and the last-place team [St. Lawrence], and both games were hard fought battles.”

St. Lawrence began their season with a 2–1 win against Colorado College and have since had wins against the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Princeton, Colgate University, Nebraska and Dartmouth. This season, both Yale and St. Lawrence have won against RPI and Union College and have lost to Quinnipiac University. Yale lost to both Colgate and Princeton, while St. Lawrence won 6–4 and 4–3, respectively. Yale beat RPI and Brown, teams that both conquered the Saints.

In its most recent game, St. Lawrence tied Clarkson 4–4, with the Knights winning the extra league point in the shootout. Forward David Jankowski, defenseman Phillipe Chapleau and forward Josh Boyer all tallied two points at Appleton Arena at Clarkson in the contest. 

St. Lawrence enters the weekend having dropped five of their last seven games. Forward Kaden Pickering leads the team with six goals and 14 points, and goalie Emil Zetterquist has played 21 of their 24 games this season in the net. 

On Saturday, the Elis will face No. 20 Clarkson for their second matchup of the weekend. 

With games dating back to 1929-30, the Golden Knights have a 78–39–7 lead over Yale. The Bulldogs have fallen to the Golden Knights in each of their last five games.

In their most recent meeting on Jan. 31, 2020, the Bulldogs traveled to the North Country and lost 3–1 to the Golden Knights. Clarkson ranked first in the league and sixth in the nation, and Yale forward Tyler Welsh ’21 put up the only goal for the Elis in the first frame. 

“I think the biggest thing for us this weekend was our commitment to team defense, which was really good,” defenseman Matthew Foley ’20 told the News after the game. “We didn’t get the results we wanted, but that’s definitely something we’re going to build around going forward and should help us string together some wins.”

Clarkson enters Saturday off a 4–4 tie and shootout win against St. Lawrence. The Golden Knights have had wins against Harvard, Dartmouth, Princeton, Wisconsin, Colgate and Union this season. 

Regardless of Clarkson’s numerous wins and high ranking in the conference, the Elis are determined to add a pair of wins to their season this weekend. 

Following this weekend’s games, the Yale men’s ice hockey team will take on Princeton on Tuesday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. in Princeton, New Jersey.