Russell Jaslow at USCHO.com has written a nice preview of this weekend's big game...
Brockport (14-9-3, 7-7-2) at Plattsburgh (22-1-2, 15-0-1)
If there is one goaltending match up everyone wanted to see, this is it: Bryan Hince versus Todd Sheridan. First against second team All-Conference. .937 save pct. versus .916 save pct. These two netminders have been the topic of a heated debate on the USCHO.com message boards. Whether it gets settled or not on Saturday, it will at least be fun to watch.
“They are going to rally behind their goalie and try to win the game starting from him on out,” Plattsburgh coach Bob Emery said.
“When we let him know he was second team All-Conference, he was a little perturbed at that,” Brockport coach Brian Dickinson said after the play-in game. “Although we have a lot of respect for Mr. Hince up at Plattsburgh, Todd is a competitor, and he thinks he’s the best guy for the job. Obviously, we’ll need a healthy Todd Sheridan to be on top of his game because it will be a game where most likely we’ll be outshot.”
Plattsburgh certainly has the stronger supporting cast, which Dickinson is fully aware of.
“They’re deep,” he said. “All you have to do is look at the first team All-Conference and see it’s basically all Plattsburgh. You just have to take care of the middle of the ice, force everything outside.”
Loaded may be more like it as the Cardinals have six of the top 13 scorers: Dylan Clarke (11-15-26), Joey Wilson (12-10-22), Riley Hill (9-12-21), Nick Rolls (5-15-20), Phil Farrow (6-14-20), and Eric Satim (9-10-19). This allowed Plattsburgh to have the top offense with the only team averaging over five goals a game. Oh, and they just so happen to also be the only team that lets up less than two goals each contest. Plus, they are the least penalized team, have the best penalty kill (85.9%) and the second best power play (26.7%), and they have not allowed a shortie all season.
“If we play the same game we did a couple of weeks ago and get a couple of timely scores when the game was close, we’ll take our chances,” Dickinson said.
Plattsburgh knows not to take Brockport lightly. The Golden Eagles in some ways seem to be a team of destiny. Just when people want to count them out, they perform an accomplishment the school has never seen before.
“I know we’ll run into a very hard working team,” Emery said. “They are going to come in and throw everything but the kitchen sink at us. They have a few former Plattsburgh players that will be coming in here with a lot of emotion.”
“We’ve got to work hard. We’ve got to be energized. We do that, we play our best hockey,” Dickinson said. “We have to tighten up our zone a little bit.
Leading the way for Brockport is Sean O’Malley (4-14-18), Tim Crowley (6-9-15), Dave McNab (8-6-14), James Cody (5-9-14), and Mike Gershon (6-6-12), along with two excellent rookie defensemen, Greg Amato and Andrew Simmons.
“You are only as good as your goalie in this game,” Emery said. “It’s like a pitcher in baseball. If you don’t have a good goalie, you’re not going to have a chance to win.”
“To advance in this league when it’s one and done, if you have a solid goaltender, you can go far,” Dickinson said.
Let the battle commence.
To read the rest of Jaslow's column, where he talks about Brockport's victory over Potsdam, go here: http://www.uscho.com/news/college-hockey/id,16728
