The women’s hockey team, fresh off of four straight wins versus ECAC Hockey opponents, faces another test this weekend when league foes Clarkson and St. Lawrence come to town. The Red (4-2-0 overall, 4-0-0 ECACH) will play Clarkson (11-1-1, 5-0-0) tonight at 7 p.m. at Lynah Rink. The Golden Knights are currently first in the ECACH and rank No. 2 nationally. The Red then hosts the Saints (4-4-3, 2-3-0) at 4 p.m. tomorrow afternoon; the Saints are a team that has gotten off to a slow start this season but was 1-0-1 versus the Red a year ago.

The Red now ranks No. 7 in the nation in the USCHO.com poll and No. 4 nationally in the KRACH rankings; a rating system that uses a complex mathematical formula to rate teams based on many factors similar to the way the BCS is used in college football. The Golden Knights currently rank second in every poll. The team knows that both games will be difficult, but show a great amount of confidence in themselves.Against the boards: The women’s hockey team’s tough schedule continues with No. 2 Clarkson tonight.

“We’re definitely confident heading into this weekend,” said senior forward Melanie Jue. “Clarkson and St. Lawrence are both great teams; both games are going to be tough. But we’ve definitely proven that we can compete with anyone.”

More than anything, the Red is excited to go out and play and prove just how good they are against the only team sitting between them and first place in the ECACH.

“Everyone’s pretty excited,” said sophomore forward Chelsea Karpenko. “We’re playing for first place [in ECAC]; anytime you’re playing in a game that big everybody is going to get excited.”

There is no doubt that head coach Doug Derraugh and the Red have spent time preparing for Clarkson senior Dominque Thibault, a UConn transfer who was last year’s Hockey East Player of the Year. Thibault leads the Golden Knights with 17 points on the season so far. However, during the week of practice, the Red did not alter much of its routine and continued to do what has clearly worked well throughout the young season.

“[Coach Derraugh] generally makes a plan for practice based on who we’re playing that weekend,” Jue said. “But we haven’t changed too much week to week; we’re focusing on keeping it simple and sticking to what got us our wins each of the last two weekends.”

Since its convincing victory over Dartmouth on Oct. 30, the Red has transformed itself from a team flying under the radar to a team recognized as one of the best in the country. However even with all of the accolades, the approach of the team has not changed one bit.

“We have the same mindset that we did at the beginning of the season,” Jue said. “Yeah it’s been great that we’ve had two solid weekends in a row, but we know that we still have a lot of things that we need to improve on. Nothing has gone to our head.”