The North Country will be the focus of the women's college hockey world this weekend, as eighth-ranked St. Lawrence (7-4-3, 4-1-1 ECAC Hockey) will play a home-and-home set with No. 4 Clarkson (12-3-1, 4-2-0).

Both the Saints and Golden Knights will be fresh off bye weeks entering Thursday night's series opener at Cheel Arena in Potsdam.

"This time of year, these are going to be huge games," said head coach Chris Wells '92. "To be able to get them on a weekend and create some atmosphere around the North Country will be special."

The series will shift to Appleton Arena for Saturday's 1 p.m. matinee, with plenty on the line.

"They always seem to be different, the (games) at Appleton and the ones over at Cheel," said Wells. "We had a pretty strict schedule here — Clarkson, Colgate, Cornell, Boston College, — (so) in terms of pace of play, I don't think anything's going to jump out at us."

The Saints are currently in third place in the conference standings, one point behind Colgate and Cornell, and a single point ahead of Clarkson.

"Clarkson has been the measuring stick in the last four or five years in our conference, and for two of the last four years in the country, (so) we're hoping to get a good feeling of confidence that we're moving forward to where we want to be at the end of the year," said Wells. "Coming off the bye week, everybody's pretty excited to play these two games this weekend."

Clarkson leads the all-time series 23-18-7, and home-ice advantage has played a key factor throughout the rivals' history: St. Lawrence is 15-9-1 (.620) in Canton, but 3-14-6 (.261) when making the trip up Route 11.

SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
The two-time national champion Golden Knights are as strong an offensive unit as they come; led by the trio of junior Loren Gabel (12-15—27), Quebec-born first-year Elizabeth Giguere (10-16—26) and Czech international Michaela Pejzlova, Clarkson is the premium offense in ECAC Hockey, averaging 3.94 goals per game.

Senior netminder Shea Tiley (12-3-1, 1.30, .938) is a steady presence between the pipes and leads the nation with seven shutouts this season.

KEY TO VICTORY
Shut down Clarkson's top line.

"You don't get a lot of opportunities to try to shut down a line like that, especially on the road in terms of matching (lines), so we just have to be aware when they're on the ice and protect the puck. We'll try to keep the puck as much as we can because you don't get a lot of it against a line like that." — Chris Wells

GAME NOTES
The last time St. Lawrence won at Cheel Arena was Feb. 27, 2010 in an ECAC Hockey quarterfinal game (2-1)…Justine Reyes leads the Saints in goals (8) and points (16)…St. Lawrence has lost just once in its last seven games (5-1-1)…The Saints fell one spot to eighth in the latest USCHO rankings after taking the idle weekend.

Carlos Verde is a contributing writer for the Canadian Football League. He is pursuing his B.A. in journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa and is serving as a volunteer intern for the St. Lawrence University women's hockey team this year.