In this week's edition of the student newspaper, the Stylus, sports reporter Brandon Wood offers this recap and analysis of last week's games...
After a 7-2 loss in their home opener to non-conference foe Nazareth
College, Golden Eagles hockey hit the road for its first pair of
conference games needing somebody to step up. Freshman goalkeeper Jared Lockhurst was up to the task in his first collegiate starts.
“We recruited him to come in and compete,” Brockport Head Coach Brian
Dickinson said. “We knew he was a quality goaltender and we knew he
would give a good presence in the net. [Aaron] Greene didn’t have a
great game [against Nazareth], and Jared gave a good effort in practice
to compete for the starting spot.”
In Brockport’s (1-2 overall, 1-1 SUNYAC) first game of the weekend Friday at Buffalo State, Lockhurst made 42 saves, with 22 saves coming in the third period.
“He was very calm, cool and collected back there,” Dickinson said. “He
was fundamentally very solid. He didn’t give them very much to shoot at.
Jared stood tall and our defensemen did a great job.”
Fellow freshman Michael Zagari opened the scoring for the Eagles 12 minutes into the game to give Brockport a 1-0 lead. Five minutes later, junior Chris Cangro added his second goal of the year to make it 2-0 Brockport.
Buffalo State sophomore forward Nick Melligan scored two straight to tie the game at 2-2. Brockport freshman Jonathan Demme
scored what would be the game winner on his first collegiate goal.
Buffalo State dominated the stat sheet in the third period, but Lockhurst was up to the challenge.
The Bengals had the first 22 shots in the period with 12 on power plays, outshooting Brockport 22-1. Lockhurst didn’t let a goal in, and Brockport freshman Jesse Facchini scored on an empty net in the waning seconds of the third for his second point of the season.
Brockport won the game 4-2, the second year in a row they’ve won a game against Buffalo State.
As for Brockport’s second game of the weekend, it was in Fredonia, a place that the Eagles have not won in more than six seasons.
“It’s a tough place to play,” Dickinson said. “They have their pep band
making it hard to hear. Fredonia is typically the team that you know
when you go in there it’s going to be a one-goal hockey game. It’s
tough.”
Despite another stellar effort in goal by Lockhurst, who had 26 saves,
Brockport came up short. Lockhurst was simply outplayed by the man
directly across the ice from him.
Brockport was unable to solve Fredonia goalie Mark Friesen, who made 25
saves, and lost 1-0. Brockport was 0-for-7 on the power play during the
game. Fredonia notched the lone goal in the first period on a wrist
shot from the right circle by Mat Hehr.
Dickinson made sure his team was taking a positive message out of this tough one-point loss on the road.
“Be disappointed we didn’t get any points out of the game,” Dickinson
said he told his team after the loss. “We certainly deserved the better
fate than a 1-0 loss. I thought we played hard, but it was the case of
not really buying into a defensive game. We’re all disappointed, but we
went to Fredonia and Buffalo State and we split.We should build off
these positives, we’re still in great shape.”
Despite the 1-1 record on the year, Lockhurst made a total of 68 saves
on the weekend with a save percentage of 95.8 percent. However, with
games coming up against Oswego and Cortland at home Friday, Nov. 2 and
Saturday, Dickinson was unable to commit to Lockhurst as his starter
Monday.
“He had a great weekend, and he’s got the lead for Friday,” Dickinson
said. “But it would be unfair to the other guys if I committed to him
right away. At the Division III level, goalies need to show up to
practice and compete to earn the spot for the weekend. If he doesn’t
work hard Aaron [Greene] and Joe [Reagan] are right there to push him
out of his spot.”
With Oswego coming in, a team that Brockport has an all-time record of
5-80-4 against, Dickinson and the Eagles will be looking for a strong
showing out of their back end to keep them in the game. That game and
the game against Cortland start at 7 p.m. at the Tuttle North Ice Arena.
Source:
http://www.thestylus.net/sports/brockport-hockey-skates-past-buffalo-st-1.2940083#.UJDdU4ZNp_8
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