And although senior goaltenders Jeremy Symington and Sean Coakley are solid between the pipes, they don't inspire the sort of confidence in their blueline that Gustafson did last season. Coakley sports a .875 save percentage, while Symington ekes out a .833 to round out the conference in last place.
One redeeming feature of the Saints is their league best power play, which averages around 44 percent. However, the success this unit will have is questionable, given the near-perfection of the Crimson penalty kill unit.
"B.C. had a 25 percent power play, and they went 0-for-6 last week," Kolarik said. "Not that we want to take penalties, but we have confidence in who we put out on the unit."
Clarkson will prove to be a slightly more challenging contest, considering that the Golden Knights trounced the Saints 7-2 last week. However, offensive sniper Erik Coles will be sorely missed by the men up front.
The Golden Knights have their work cut out for them in terms of the conference hunt. Losses to Princeton and Cornell have dropped Clarkson to the bottom half of the league standings, and its win over lukewarm St. Lawrence did little to boost its ranking. Goaltender Shawn Grant has provided some help in back, boasting a .909 save percentage with wins in half of his starts. However, Clarkson has not been much better than the Saints in keeping the goal count down, allowing 3.67 goals-against per game, good for eighth in the ECAC.
"Both teams are questioning their goaltending right now," Kolarik said. "But they are desperate teams, and those are the most dangerous ones to play."
However, a potent offense has put the Knights on top of the league in terms of scoring output. Clarkson has notched five goals per game against its opponents.
The Crimson already made history once in upstate New York this season, garnering three points against Colgate and Cornell, something that Harvard had not been able to achieve since the 1992-93 season. Given the Crimson's steady stream of success against scorching hot teams, a pair of wins over two fledging former mainstays of the ECAC is hardly out of the question.