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SCHENECTADY, NY – The Dutchmen welcome the Golden Knights back to Messa Rink for the first round of the 2009 ECAC Hockey playoffs. Union's 2-1 win against Clarkson on Saturday secured home ice for the Dutchmen for the sixth time in seven seasons. The best-of-three series will see games on Friday and Saturday. If necessary the deciding game would be played on Sunday. Start time for all three outings is 7 p.m. The winner will travel to Yale, Cornell, Princeton or St. Lawrence in the second round.

 

The Dutchmen will be hosting its sixth playoff series in seven seasons. Since head coach Nate Leaman's arrive during the 2003-04 season, Union has been on the road for a first round game only once (2006-07 season when the team traveled to Quinnipiac).

 

Union is 9-6-0 at home this season, posting its fourth consecutive winning record at Messa Rink. In the last four seasons, Union has gone 41-21-12 at home and Leaman is 57-40-15. This year, Union has outscored its opponents 43-40, while outshooting them 518-381. More than 27,000 people have entered Messa Rink to watch Union this season and sophomore forward Adam Presizniuk hasn't disappointed, leading all Dutchmen at home with a team-high six goals, eight assists and 14 points.

 

Overall, Presizniuk leads the team in goals (13), assists (18) and points (31). During Union's DI history, only two players have finished leading all three categories -- Craig Ferrero led the 1991-92 team with 15 goals, 17 assists and 32 points and Kris Goodjohn was tops in 2001-02 with 10 goals, 17 assists and 27 points. Presizniuk finished the regular season with 32 points, which places him just shy of Union's single season mark of 37 points (including playoffs). He is fifth in the league for points. He is tied for sixth for goals and seventh for assists.
 

Presizniuk's linemate is also having success. Junior forward Jason Walters has produced a point in five of the last six games and leads the team in conference-only games with 10 goals and 21 points. He is tied for first with 11 assists. Walters was the first ECAC Hockey student-athlete to have hit double digits in both goals and assists. He is now one of six student athletes to accomplish the feat. He has registered a team-high 19 points the last 19 games, scoring at least one point in 15 of those games. For the season he has a career-high 12 goals to go along with 15 assists. He is second on the team with a career-high tying 27 points.

 

Both Presizniuk and Walters are near the top for shots on goal, but first place belongs to junior forward Mario Valery-Trabucco, who is only the sixth Dutchman in the school's Division I history to have 100 shots in a season. Entering the weekend, his 108 shots place him third all-time. He is averaging 3.27 shots per game -- good enough for fourth.

 

As a team, Union registered a season-high 50 shots at Dartmouth and outshot the Big Green 50-27. However, it wasn't the largest shot differential this season. Union outshot American International 48-19 in a 6-0 win on Dec. 9. Union is 2-0-0 when having 25 or more shots on goal against the competition and 4-1-1 when having 20 or more. The team is 4-3-1 when outshooting its opponents by more than 15 and 6-5-2 when having 10 more tries.

 

The Golden Knights just missed out of home ice in the first round of the playoffs with the 2-1 loss at Union on Saturday. The two teams finished tied for eighth, but Union held the second tie breaker.

 

Last weekend, the Golden Knights posted a 4-2 win at RPI before losing at Union.

This season, sophomore forward Scott Freeman leads the team with 26 points behind four goals and a team-best 22 assists.

 

Senior forward Chris D'Alvise leads the team with 12 goals and is third with 23 points. In the second spot is senior Shea Guthrie with 25 points, including 11 goals and 14 assists. Guthrie leads the team in conference only games with 21 points, including nine goals and 12 assists.

 

In goal, freshman Paul Karpowich, a St. Louis Blues prospect, has played 25 games, posting a 7-13-4 record with a 2.74 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage. In conference only games, he is 5-7-2 with a 2.68 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage. Clarkson has posted a .145 conversion rate (24-for-165) on the power play and has killed off .839 of its penalties (167-of-199).

These two teams first met on Jan. 23, 1923 and Union skated away with a 5-1 win. However, Clarkson owns a 27-11-5 overall record and a 26-10-5 Division I mark.

Six out of the last 11 outings have gone into overtime, including three straight during the first round of the 2004-05 playoffs.

 

The Dutchmen are 6-12-4 at home against the Golden Knights. Union has not lost to Clarkson at Messa Rink since a 4-3 overtime loss during game three of the first round of the ECAC Hockey playoffs in 2005.