Dan Hickling
Two weeks ago, one wouldn’t have liked Potsdam’s playoff chances very much. Or not at all. At that point, the Bears were hibernating in the SUNYAC cellar, with just two standings points to their name, and with three conference foes to jump over just to land in the sixth and final playoff spot. It’s funny … Read more
Winning on the road, especially while in a standings dogfight, can be just the sort of test that can define a team like, say, Elmira. The Soaring Eagles began last weekend with a slim, one-point lead one point lead in the race for first place over both Utica and Hobart. They had just one tilt … Read more
Life with those Ice Knights from Geneseo has been something of an elevator ride in recent weeks. Up and down. You need look no further than last weekend when the Knights, themselves SUNYAC title contenders, dispatched league leaders Plattsburgh one night, then were drubbed by last-place Potsdam the next. Yet even with those waves and … Read more
Hmmmm. What exactly was decided by last week’s ECAC West action? Well, we began with just one point separating the top half of the six-team loop, (Elmira, Hobart and Utica) just as it is at this very moment. We had cellar-dwelling Nazareth acting like giant-killers and they kept the slingshots humming for one more night, … Read more
Up is down. Down is up. Hard to tell which way was which based on last week’s Division III action, such were the number of upsets registered around the rinks. Scarcely any conference was immune from the toppling of giants, as six of the nine league leaders suffered at least one loss during the weekend. … Read more
Up is down. Down is up. Hard to tell which way was which based on last week’s Division III action, such were the number of upsets registered around the rinks. Scarcely any conference was immune from the toppling of giants, as six of the nine league leaders suffered at least one loss during the weekend. … Read more
They consider the number 13 to be unlucky, but for roughly half the teams in the SUNYAC, to see that figure in the points column at season’s end would suit them just fine. Six teams make the SUNYAC tournament each season and for the past seven years (such was the sample size we settled upon), … Read more
Who saw this coming? Anybody? Anybody? Sure ya did. Uh huh … right. Even the most rabid fans of Nazareth didn’t see it coming. After all, the Golden Flyers, a program feeling all the growing pains of a second-year program, was still 0-for-the-season in ECAC West play, and 0-for-forever against nationally-ranked opponents. Yet they pried … Read more
Despite the respective and disparate records, Friday’s matchup between those two North Country rivals, No. 4 Plattsburgh (14-2-2, 7-0-2) and Potsdam (6-10-0, 1-6-0), looks to be something memorable. If not because there is no love lost between the two schools, who have battled 101 times before, then because the game has been earmarked as “Military … Read more
Let the jockeying begin. After having tasted out-of-conference action for the past several weeks, the ECAC West’s sextet is set to battle each other in earnest for standings positions. The top five teams, headed by Utica, are separated by just six points. And who knows, for one or two clubs, maybe an NCAA tournament bid … Read more
Lumps. Nobody wants to take them, but to most hockey squads, they are utterly unavoidable. Such was the case for Elmira last season when they bid adieu to a strong class of 10 seniors and welcomed a like-numbered group of talented, but untested, freshmen. The result was the Soaring Eagles’ first losing campaign (10-16-0) in … Read more
Let’s name hockey animals that start with the letter ‘B.’ There are Bulls, such as you might find in the big horn country of Billings. There are Bison, which roam across rinks in Boulder. And there are even Brown Bears, the likes of which prowl in chilly Kenai River. The common thread between all those … Read more
Like that of Mark Twain, the demise of SUNYAC power Oswego may have been greatly exaggerated. Such a prediction may have been understandable, of course. The Lakers came into this season having lost 14 members to graduation, stalwarts that had carried the club to four consecutive league titles, as well as the past two national … Read more
Perhaps it was because they had a month to stew about the way they skidded into the Christmas break. Or maybe it was a case of talent rising to its proper level. No matter. Hobart gave evidence that the woes of the first half of the season are truly a thing of the past, after … Read more
Call it a style statement, if you like. Or winter wear fit for the occasion. The solid white worn by Geneseo’s Tyler Brickler and his linemates during the Ice Knights’ outdoor clash with Nazareth last Sunday proved to be both fashionable and functional. Brickler, a junior and a key cog in the Knights’ attack, cut … Read more
The conventional thought is that when it comes to outdoor hockey games, the goalies have it bad. The forwards and defensemen get to skate from end to end, working up a sweat, perhaps, but certainly, for a shift, at least, able to tune out the cold. Not so the goalie who has to stay between … Read more
With the holiday break having begun in earnest, the weekend just past saw little in the way of Division III action. However, less is often more, and so it was on Sunday in Rochester, N.Y, where No. 14 Geneseo and Nazareth hooked up in what could be called the “Currier and Ives Classic.” In sum, … Read more
With the holiday break having begun in earnest, the weekend just past saw little in the way of Division III action. However, less is often more, and so it was on Sunday in Rochester, N.Y, where No. 14 Geneseo and Nazareth hooked up in what could be called the “Currier and Ives Classic.” In sum, … Read more
The holiday hiatus is already underway throughout most of the ECAC West, that is, with two exceptions. On Saturday, conference leaders Utica will host the U.S. National Under-18 Team, while the next day, Nazareth will tangle with SUNYAC foe Geneseo at Rochester’s Frontier Field in the league’s first-ever outdoor tilt. All that said, it seems … Read more
It usually doesn’t take a rookie too long before he receives his “initiation” – his “Welcome to the SUNYAC” moment. It’s been 10 games now as a Geneseo Ice Knight and freshman Stephen Collins has yet to receive his. No dressing room pranks played on him by the upperclassmen. Nor any “love taps” applied not … Read more