The Golden Knights have been a member of ECAC Hockey since 2004, and play home games in Cheel Arena on the Clarkson University campus.

Highlighting the season was a weekend sweep of conference powerhouses Harvard and Dartmouth and a home victory over then top-ranked St. Lawrence.

Only a last-second overtime loss to Harvard in the final game of the regular season prevented Clarkson from clinching both outright 3rd place and home ice for the quarterfinals of the ECAC tournament.

Under the new coaches, the 2008–09 campaign was less successful for the Golden Knights, although they still enjoyed another winning season and spot in the ECAC tournament.

Entering the ECAC tournament as the second seed, they won the quarterfinals in three games over rivals St. Lawrence before hosting, and defeating, Harvard University in the semifinals.

[2] Despite being denied their first conference championship, the Golden Knights season was good enough to earn them a bid to their first ever NCAA tournament.

Going on the road to face third-seeded Minnesota, a team that had shut out the Golden Knights the two times they had met earlier that year, Clarkson rallied from a 0–2 deficit to force overtime before falling 2–3 in the extra session to close the best Clarkson season up until that time.

[2] This team was notable for featuring freshmen Jamie Lee Rattray, Carly Mercer, and goaltender Erica Howe, all of whom would play a major role for Clarkson over the next three seasons.

In conference play, Clarkson totaled their greatest number of wins and points at the time with a 15–5–2 record, which landed them in third place.

The team's postseason troubles from previous years, however, finally came to a head as they crashed out at home in three games in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament against sixth-seeded Quinnipiac.

[2] The impressive season was good enough to earn Clarkson an at large-bid to the NCAA tournament, where they visited third-seeded, and eventual runners-up, Boston University in the quarterfinals.

The title, which was clinched on the last day of the regular season with a 2–1 overtime win over heavy underdogs Union, gave Clarkson the top-seed in the ECAC playoffs which gave Clarkson, after sweeping Dartmouth in the tournament quarterfinals, the right to host both the semifinals and the finals of the ECAC tournament.

On April 21, 2014, almost a month after the national championship victory, it was announced that Shannon Desrosiers would step down as co-head coach, leaving her husband Matt in full control of the team.

The decision was made in order for Shannon to spend more time raising the couple's daughter and soon-to-be-born second child.

Despite the loss, the Golden Knights still earned their third straight at-large bid into the NCAA tournament, where they fell in the quarterfinals against second-seeded Boston College 1–5.

Graduation of another talented class, the first to make the NCAA tournament all four years it played for Clarkson, left the team entering 2016–17 season with much uncertainty.

Two 3–1 against at New Hampshire wins the next weekend stabilized the situation, but failed to give any indication that Clarkson would be among the nation's elites on the season.

After escaping with another extra-attacker goal tie in the first game, Clarkson sent the Saints to their first loss with a 4–1 win, giving them the frontrunner position in the ECAC.

Clarkson won its remaining two games the next weekend to finish with a 19–1–2 conference record, easily the best in its history.

The quarterfinals of this tournament featured a rematch of the ECAC Championship Game against Cornell, which was again won by Clarkson, this time by a score of 3–1.

On offense for the season, the Golden Knights were led by senior Cayley Mercer, who finished second all-time on the team for points with 178 and first for goals with 80.

She ended the season tied for most points in the NCAA and as Clarkson's second-ever finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award.