POTSDAM — If any ECAC Hockey team should know it's possible for the No. 10 seed to win a playoff series at the No. 7 seed it would be Clarkson.

The last two seasons the Golden Knights have been the No. 7 seed, and both times lost a home playoff series to the No. 10 team.

This time around Clarkson (9-18-7 overall, 8-11-3 conference) is the No. 10 seed and will travel to open the ECAC Hockey playoffs at No. 7 Brown (11-12-6, 7-9-6).

The best-of-three series at the Meehan Auditorium in Providence, R.I., starts at 7 p.m. Friday. Game two is at 7 p.m. Saturday and game three, if needed, is at 7 p.m. Sunday.

Brown ranks 49th out of 59 NCAA Division I schools in home attendance with an average crowd of 1,324. The Bears played to just 53 percent capacity this season.

Brown went 1-0-1 against the Golden Knights during the regular season.

Clarkson tied the Bears 3-3 at Meehan Auditorium on Nov. 10 and outshot Brown 48-30 in that contest. The Golden Knights had 1-0 and 2-1 leads before Brown scored twice to go ahead 3-2. Adam Pawlick scored in the second period to tie the game.

Clarkson also led twice in the game at Cheel Arena on Jan. 11, but wound up losing 3-2 on a goal from Ryan Jacobson in the second period.

Clarkson enters the postseason on a three-game losing streak and the Golden Knights did not score a goal last weekend in road games at Rensselaer and Union.

A LOOK BACK

The last time Clarkson played Brown in the ECAC Hockey playoffs the Golden Knights were led by Erik Cole and Willie Mitchell.

Clarkson swept the Bears in a quarterfinal series at Cheel Arena in 1999, winning game one 3-2 in overtime and winning 3-1 the next day to reach the semifinals in Lake Placid. Clarkson went on to win the championship that weekend.

Clarkson has faced Brown 12 times in the ECAC playoffs and has an 11-1 record against the Bears. Brown's only win against Clarkson game on March 7, 1978, when the Bears defeated Clarkson 6-2 in a quarterfinal game at Walker Arena. The teams have never met in a postseason game at Brown.

Clarkson beat Brown 6-2 in the 1993 ECAC championship game in Lake Placid.

WHO IS NEXT?

Should Clarkson win this weekend's playoff series who would the Golden Knights face next week?

ECAC Hockey re-seeds the tournament each week, so if Clarkson was the only road team to win this weekend it would automatically face conference champion Quinnipiac in a quarterfinal series next weekend in Hamden, Conn.

If either No. 11 Colgate or No. 12 Harvard also win a series this weekend, then Clarkson would play at No. 2 Rensselaer. If both the Raiders and Crimson won playoff series this weekend then Clarkson would travel to No. 3 Yale.

The only team Clarkson cannot face next weekend is No. 4 Union.

This season's ECAC Hockey Tournament, which starts Friday, marks the 11th year in which a format has been used that features all 12 teams making the event.

In the first weekend teams 5-12 meet, then the top four teams host quarterfinal series next weekend.

Here's a look at the statistical history of how various seeds and teams have fared over the past decade.

First Round

5 vs. 12 - Fifth seeds are 8-2 in these series.

6 vs. 11 - This is tied up 5-5

7 vs. 10 - This is also tied up 5-5

8 vs. 9 - No. 8 is 6-4

Quarterfinal records

No. 1 - 7-3

No. 2 - 9-1

No. 3 - 9-1

No. 4 - 6-4

No. 5 - 4-4

No. 6 - 1-4

No. 7 - 0-4

No. 8 - 1-5

No. 9 - 1-3

No. 10 - 0-5

No. 11 - 1-4

No. 12 - 1-1

Semifinal records

No. 1 - 4-3

No. 2 - 7-2

No. 3 - 4-5

No. 4 - 2-4

No. 5 - 1-3

No. 6 - 1-0

No. 8 - 0-1

No. 9 - 1-0

No. 11 - 0-1

No. 12 - 0-1

Championship game records

No. 1 - 4-0

No. 2 - 4-3

No. 3 - 0-4

No. 4 - 1-1

No. 5 - 0-1

No. 6 - 1-0

No. 9 - 0-1

Series' records as home team

Clarkson 2-4

SLU 5-1

Colgate 7-1

Cornell 8-1

RPI 1-3

Union 3-6

Princeton 3-2

Quinnipiac 7-0

Harvard 7-1

Dartmouth 6-1

Yale 4-3

Brown 2-1

Series' records as road team

Clarkson 3-4

SLU 3-6

Colgate 3-3

Cornell 1-0

RPI 3-7

Union 0-2

Princeton 0-6

Quinnipiac 2-6

Harvard 3-3

Dartmouth 1-4

Yale 1-5

Brown 4-7

POTSDAM — A convincing win over Rensselaer Saturday sent the Clarkson University women’s hockey team on its way to next weekend’s ECAC Hockey semifinals in Ithaca.

Clarkson (28-8 overall) scored the first three goals of the game and went on to beat RPI 5-2 at Cheel Arena to sweep a quarterfinal series two games to none.

The Golden Knights, who are the second seed in the tournament, will meet No. 3 Harvard in a semifinal on Friday at Cornell University. Clarkson won two games against the Crimson by 3-1 scores this season. The other semifinal will feature top-seeded Cornell against either No. 4 Quinnipiac or No. 5 St. Lawrence University. That series is going to a decisive third game this afternoon in Hamden, Conn.

Clarkson won the opening game of the series 3-2 in overtime on Friday.

But on Saturday the Golden Knights did not allow RPI (10-22-4) to stay close.

Clarkson took the lead for good with 34 seconds left in the first period on an unassisted goal by Shannon MacAulay.

Then Jamie Lee Rattray took over in the second period and effectively ended any chance for the Engineers to force a game three.

Rattray scored on a shorthanded breakaway at 11 minutes, 53 seconds of the second period to extend Clarkson’s lead to 2-0.

Then, just under three minutes later, Rattray scored again while she was falling to the ice to make it 3-0 at 14:51. It was the second goal of the weekend for Rattray after she had been knocked down by an RPI player.

Rattray, a junior, leads Clarkson in scoring with 22 goals and 28 assists, and she produced three goals in the two-game series. She also played a physical game and won several fights for the puck along the boards.

The cold tub in Clarkson’s training room was a popular destination after both games of the series.

RPI scored its first goal of the game at 10:43 of the third period on a shot by Lauren Wash, but Clarkson answered with goals from Olivia Howe at 13:50 and an empty-net goal from Vanessa Gagnon at 17:36.

The Engineers closed out the scoring with a goal from Katie Daniels with 12 seconds left.

Saturday’s game was the last the Golden Knights could lose and not be eliminated from a postseason tournament. From this point on every game is single-elimination.

POTSDAM — Seventh-seed Rensselaer gave the Clarkson University women’s hockey team a scare in the ECAC hockey playoff opener Friday night at Cheel Arena.

But a tip-in goal in overtime by captain Carly Mercer gave the No. 2 Golden Knights a 3-2 win and a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three quarterfinal series which continues at 4 p.m. today. If Clarkson wins it will advance to the semifinals next weekend. If RPI wins there will be a deciding game at 4 p.m. Sunday.

Clarkson (27-8 overall) beat RPI twice during the regular season but the Engineers (10-21-4) never let the Golden Knights stay in a comfortable position throughout game one.

Clarkson struck first in Friday’s game when Vanessa Gagnon scored on a shot from the circle at 3 minutes, 42 seconds of the opening period.

But midway through the first period Clarkson’s Shannon MacAulay was called for roughing and RPI took advantage with a power-play goal by Alexa Gurschow, which was set up by a pass from Jordan Smelker, to tie the game 1-1 at 10:53 of the first period.

The game remained in the 1-1 tie until 11:05 of the third period when Rattray scored a goal while lying on her belly. She was knocked to the ice in front of RPI goalie Kelly O’Brien but still poked a shot between her legs to give Clarkson a 2-1 advantage.

Just as it did in the first period, RPI had an answer when Clarkson took a lead and it started with another power play as Olivia Howe was called for tripping at 14:02.

The Engineers scored exactly two minutes later on a shot from Taylor Horton, but it came a second after the power play had expired.