Men’s D-II/III: SUNYAC

Most coaches can push buttons. The best coaches know when to keep their hands to themselves. Count Oswego bench boss Ed Gosek among the latter. Gosek, who has one Frozen Four championship ring on his finger, realized late in the season that whatever emotional tweaks his No. 3 Lakers might have needed could be applied … Read more

This is the last regularly-scheduled SUNYAC column of the season, and, of course, there is a wide-open stretch of ice to cover, not the least of which is Saturday’s league championship tilt pitting No. 1 Oswego and No. 2 Plattsburgh. How fitting. Those two old foes are about to meet for the SUNYAC title for … Read more

We’re coming down to the home stretch, now that the two SUNYAC quarterfinal tilts are in the books, and semifinal match-ups — No. 4 Buffalo State at No. 1 Oswego and No. 3 Geneseo at No. 2 Plattsburgh — are set for Saturday. It’s unusual to some degree to see the top four seeds holding … Read more

Hands up: who had Oswego’s Bobby Gertsakis in your SUNYAC Fantasy League last weekend? (Still looking — still looking — crickets chirping…). Nobody, not even the sophomore defenseman himself, could have foreseen his three-goal eruption last weekend that helped the league-leading (and nation’s No. 2 squad) to road wins at Buffalo State and Fredonia. Why … Read more

It’s why we love hockey players so much: Guys like Fredonia’s Mat Hehr. Informed that he was wanted outside for media duty, Hehr hopped on one leg through the dressing room door, bare foot planted on the freezy Tuttle Arena floor and greeted a lone reporter with a smile, one that never left his face … Read more

Take a slow cruise through any of hockey-mad Buffalo’s many ‘burbs and you are bound to come upon a random neighborhood street hockey clash. Wannabe Perreaults, LaFontaines, and Haseks have battled it out for generations for mythical Stanley Cup glory, be it on ice or asphalt. The vast majority of those dreams ended at the … Read more

Jon Whitelaw spent the greater chunk of November and December in street clothes, which is scarcely a fitting place for the SUNYAC’s reigning scoring champ. More to his liking would have been on ice, wearing the “C” for Oswego State, and leading the Lakers’ charge into the national championship fray. What Whitelaw, an education major … Read more

Naughty or nice? That’s for Santa to decide. Still, if you were to ask each of the SUNYAC’s nine head coaches, they would swear that none of them are deserving of any stockings chucked full of coal. Indeed, they’d convince you that they’ve all been good lads who deserve something special under the tree. We … Read more

The headline would have read something like this: “Plattsburgh hands Lakers first loss of the season”. The sub-head? “With one hand tied behind its back”. Well, sort of. The No. 7 Cardinals, who had been struggling just a bit in recent weeks (2-2-1 in their last five outings) were a little short-handed on the blue … Read more

Mike Dolman is back to playing competitive hockey, which is something that scads of those locked-out NHLers — Sidney Crosby for starters — wish they could be doing. Yet it wasn’t always thus for the Morrisville junior and the team’s leading scorer. In fact Dolman can feel some empathy for Sir Sidney et al, having … Read more

It would have been an easy question to ask: How much faith does Geneseo coach Chris Schultz repose in rookie winger Devon Rice? The answer to that was played out in the final minute of a deadlocked contest against a nationally-ranked opponent. Plenty. With the score knotted 2-2 and overtime looming against No. 4 Plattsburgh, … Read more

Anyone who wants to describe the term “textbook goaltender” is probably talking about some fantasy tale. There are as many ways to play the net as there are those willing to fill it, which is to say, “If it feels good, do it.” Or maybe, “Don’t mess with success,” which is the story being crafted … Read more