Herb Hammond, whose 20-year collegiate coaching career included stops at Division III Oswego State and Plattsburgh State and Division I Brown, died Wednesday at his home in Fort Gratiot, Mich. Hammond had been battling cancer. He coached Oswego to a 176-122-5 record in 11 seasons from 1969 to 1980, then led Plattsburgh to a 52-17-4 … Read more
Western New England coach Chris Bernard is moving to Potsdam to coach the Bears, Potsdam athletic director Jim Zalacca told North Country This Week. Bernard, a 1998 Clarkson graduate, had a 17-52-4 record in three seasons at Western New England after leaving an assistant coaching position at Canisius. In his senior season at Clarkson, Bernard … Read more
Now starts the real work. After losing in the national championship game a year ago, Plattsburgh had one thought on their minds–make it back. They did what they had to do in the regular season towards that goal, and then some. “Going into the SUNYAC playoffs this year was different than going into a typical … Read more
In the End, No Surprises One game was decided quickly. The other after a scare. But in the end, the favorites won. Brockport came to play against Plattsburgh, and took a surprising 2-1 first period lead. Dylan Clarke put the home team ahead on the power play early, but the Golden Eagles hung tough. Ray … Read more
A First And A Return Brockport did something never before accomplished in school history and Geneseo returned to their winning playoff ways after a three year drought in the SUNYAC play-in round. Brockport not only hosted their first playoff game ever, they won their first playoff game in school history, defeating Potsdam, 3-1. “It feels … Read more
Logjam The stress level just keeps increasing as no one has been able to pull away from the rest in the middle of the pack. Heck, not even Plattsburgh has clinched first place. To wit: if Oswego wins their match-up on Friday and beats Potsdam, and if Plattsburgh losses to Cortland, the two teams will … Read more
Madeline Loftus, who played two seasons at both Buffalo State and St. Mary’s (Minn.), was killed on Thursday evening while aboard Continental Airlines flight 3407 en route to Buffalo from Newark (N.J.), which crashed just prior to landing in Clarence Center, N.Y., a residential neighborhood just outside of Buffalo. She was 24. Loftus was one … Read more
Wanted: Points “One point is not helping. You need two points. We only have three games left, so we need some points.” Though that was said by Fredonia coach Jeff Meredith after their tie with Buffalo State, it could have been said by a lot of coaches. With teams having either three or four games … Read more
The Golden Eagles Are Soaring Brockport’s James Cody fired a shot from the left point that found the back of the net at 12:46 of the third period for a 4-1 lead over Geneseo. Cody immediately skated over to the far glass, jumping up against it to celebrate with the student section as the crowd … Read more
Is Morrisville Out Of The SUNYAC? Yes and no. When Morrisville started their move from a two year school to a four year institution three years ago, they had to go through an NCAA provisional period that lasts three to four years depending on how well they are able to follow the rules. During that … Read more
The Final Month From January 23 to the final contest on February 21, there are 40 games left on the SUNYAC composite schedule. Of those 40, three are non-conference games and one is an exhibition. Thus, this is the final push to the regular season crown and playoff spots. No more breaks. No more excuses. … Read more
Midseason Awards What better time to present some midseason awards than a few games after the midseason? Better late than never as they say. Not all these awards are going to be traditional. After all, it’s the middle of January, and when this column gets published, it’s going to be below zero in Rochester, N.Y. … Read more
Accountability It’s no secret that Oswego has not always played up to their potential this year. A season where they are led by a senior class that was the backbone to their championship season as sophomores. Some of their losses have been quite disappointing for seniors that should understand clutch play. They blew a 2-1 … Read more
No Longer A Quilt Quilts are great for keeping fans warm while sitting in cold rinks watching a hockey game. But a patchwork team is not the best recipe for success. This year is the first one where Geneseo can be considered Chris Schultz’s team instead of a Brian Hills/Jason Lammers/Chris Schultz quilt. The year … Read more
Turkey Tourneys Four SUNYAC teams competed in Thanksgiving weekend tournaments, and in all cases, the teams did a split. Sort of. Technically, Plattsburgh tied their first game, but were relegated to the consolation match due to losing the shootout against Norwich. Two of the strongest tournaments of the year — located in St. Norbert and … Read more
Another Wild One The game lived up to its billing. And instead of a one goal, low scoring affair, Fredonia and Buffalo State did one better — a high scoring deadlock. Just how wild was it? One team jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead and couldn’t hold on. The other team scored four unanswered … Read more
Jaw Dropping The score updates coming in on Friday most likely caused a lot of jaws to drop. And then drop again. And again. A lot of chins were sore from hitting the ground. Where do we start? How about Brockport who, as the Potsdam radio announcer said, put a beat down on Geneseo, 7-2. … Read more
The Unbalanced Schedule When Morrisville entered the league, the odd number of teams meant the schedule would be imbalanced from a timing standpoint. In the past, at any given time, with rare exceptions, when you looked at the standings, everyone played the same number of games. It made it very easy to determine the status … Read more
SUNYAC Goes 6-4-1 Versus ECAC West After a very disappointing year for SUNYAC teams against the ECAC West, the public schools started the season with a solid weekend against their private counterparts. “I always thought the SUNYAC is a strong league,” Plattsburgh coach Bob Emery said. “And it’s getting stronger and stronger each year, and … Read more
Early Indicators? In the past, my preview column was due after the SUNYAC Challenge was played. One would think it would be an advantage to see some of the teams play before making my predictions. However, the results of the SUNYAC Challenge were many times misleading, and relying on those games caused my predictions to … Read more