Team of the Week: Clarkson : College Hockey News

November 22, 2022
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by Adam Wodon/Managing Editor (@CHN_AdamWodon)

For what figured to be a team in contention to make the NCAA Tournament, Clarkson’s season could not have started any worse.

Four straight losses, including two in overtime to New Hampshire and Mercyhurst, had many people shaking their head.

But there’s always more to the story.

Clarkson lost both assistant coaches in the offseason — Mike Towns to Michigan State, and Josh Hauge to become Union’s new head coach. Clarkson coach Casey Jones used this as an opportunity to change the scheme up a bit. Jones has been recruiting different kinds of defensemen, and wanted to change the system to fit, emphasizing quicker breakouts and the like.

“Pretty fortunate with the staff I have, but it’s just getting on the same page,” Jones said. “I wanted to change some things, maybe two steps back, three steps forward with how we wanted to play. It was a really good opportunity for that. Then you had eight, nine new bodies, and throw new wrinkles in … so you have a lot of guys learning new stuff.

“We wanted to generate a little more numbers on our backend, a little different makeup back there than we had in the past. We wanted to exit a little quicker. We’re a good defensive team, but we defended a little bit too much last year I felt. I wanted to defend less, be quicker, counter-punch. So it was just getting acclimated to that and getting our guys thinking that way.”

Meanwhile, Clarkson had some key players out, especially forward Anthony Romano, who put up 15 goals last season. The Knights couldn’t score their way out of the dilemma.

“When we made the changes in the beginning of the year, we returned some primary point producers, while we were getting acclimated (to the new system),” Jones said. “The assessment I had that was wrong is that I thought we’d outscore our mistakes initially. But we just weren’t firing on all cylinders offensively. We were losing low-scoring games, which I didn’t expect.

“So it just kind of snowball on us. But I give our guys credit, they stuck to it.”

Following a 3-2 loss to Union to open the ECAC season, the Golden Knights have reeled off five straight wins. They outscored Cornell/Colgate 8-1 a couple weekends ago, shut out Rensselaer, and this past weekend, swept Arizona State, which had been playing well.

Friday was a hard-fought affair, with Alex Campbell scoring both goals in a 2-1 win. The…