Currently sitting at No. 5 in the USCHO poll, the Curry Colonels have started out the season with a stellar 7-1-0 record with a very motivated team that has turned NCAA tournament disappointment into fuel and focus for achievement this year from the very start of the 2024-2025 season.
“Last spring, we took the successful elements of last year’s NCAA tournament run as a baseline for how we wanted to approach this season,” said head coach Peter Roundy. “We only graduated two players from the roster that won at Geneseo and lost in four overtimes to national champion, Hobart. It would have been easy to dwell on the pain of losing a game like that, but we did not do that. We gained a lot of confidence in our NCAA tournament run. We focused on the positives and then looked at the first four games this season as an opportunity to start fast against quality opponents like Massachusetts-Boston, Norwich and two games with conference rival, Endicott. We finished those four games going 3-1-0 with only the overtime loss to Endicott so mission accomplished on the start we wanted.”
Fundamental to Curry’s success has been a deep roster and the exceptional goaltending of sophomore Shane Soderwall. Last spring, Soderwall tied the NCAA record with 98 saves in the 4OT loss to Hobart and has picked up his game this year playing all eight games to date with a 0.87 goals-against average, .967 save percentage and four shutouts.
“Shane has been a workhorse for us,” stated Roundy. “We have maybe our deepest team since I have been here, and I think the goaltending and defensive group are the strength of our roster. We have not skated the same lineup in any game so far this season, but the constant has been Shane in goal who has played every game. He is an absolute workhorse who wants the crease every night and when he plays, he gives our team immense confidence that we can win any and every game. Shane approaches the game like a professional and continues to focus on improving aspects of his game. We had an optional skate today for players that did not play in the weekend series and Shane was out there taking shots and working on things with our goalie coach. One of those areas of improvement has been his puck-handling in the defensive zone where he has helped facilitate the breakout with good decisions and in the first three games had a pair of assists. Picking the starting netminder for games is not one of the tough decisions the coaching staff is having to make right now with how Shane continues to play for us.”
While the first four games of the season were a clear focus coming out last spring, the next four games to close out the first half have equal importance to Curry’s building momentum for a strong second half. Over Thanksgiving weekend, the Colonels travel to play a pair of games against SUNYAC’s Cortland with the first game being played in the home of the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch on Saturday and back on Cortland’s campus for the second game. Finally, the Colonels close out the semester with a home-and-home series with the University of New England, a key rival in pursuit of the CNE championship this season.
“We absolutely want to finish strong,” noted Roundy. “We want to play the best teams out there and benchmark ourselves on what we need to do to compete successfully with the best at the D-III level. Cortland was a tournament team that plays a heavy game with size and speed and certainly skill. Kevin [Swallow] always has UNE playing well and contending in our conference so we will need to stay focused to earn results and valuable points against a key competitor.”
While Curry has seen expected early numbers from players like Killian Rowlee and Eelis Laaksonen, there have been some early contributions from first-year Karim Gayfullin and sophomore Victor Daigneault. Additionally junior Manny Cabral is leading the team in scoring providing some added balance and depth for coach Roundy’s squad.
“Manny is a great story for us this season,” said Roundy. “When he transferred here from New England College there were some challenges adjusting to our style and how we did things as a program, but Manny was very engaged and focused on some key things we directed last spring to prepare for this season. He has been diligent in making adjustments and like the rest of the team, was ready for a fast start to the season.”
Start fast, finish strong is the focus for a Colonel team hoping to build more success this season from the lessons from a strong season past.
“Hard to believe we are already coming up on the end of the first half,” said Roundy. “We work so hard for six-months getting ready and it goes by so quickly. We have chance to really build great momentum for the second half and based on the first four games, we hope we can have success in the last four games of the semester.”
