From the pages of this week's Stylus, courtesy of Brandon Wood...
The College at Brockport ice hockey Head Coach Brian
Dickinson had some technical difficulties Friday, Nov. 16, prior to his
team’s game against Elmira College when his Mac charger sparked in the
press box before the game. He suggested following the game that it was
“the spark [his] team needed.” After a win against Elmira and a tie with
nationally ranked Hobart College, he may want more technical problems
in his future.
Brockport (2-3-1 overall, 1-1 SUNYAC) received solid play from its goaltending and special teams in what Dickinson described as a pretty successful weekend.
“The weekend in general, I told the guys we wanted to play 120 minutes of solid hockey,” Dickinson said. “We got back to worrying just about us and not our opponents. I thought we paid a little bit too much attention to Plattsburgh last week, and this week, we got back to just worrying about Brockport.”
Elmira was among the most-penalized teams in the nation entering play Friday, having accumulated 100 penalty minutes through its first four games. Its undisciplined play gave Brockport five power-play opportunities in the game, and it capitalized three times with the man advantage.
Sophomore forward James Ryan, sophomore defenseman Chris Luker and freshman forward Andrew Parks all tallied power-play goals in Brockport’s 5-2 win.
The Golden Eagles power play is now ranked seventh in Division III hockey, converting 31 percent of the time with the extra man. Brockport is now nine-for-29 so far this season with a man advantage.
Brockport (2-3-1 overall, 1-1 SUNYAC) received solid play from its goaltending and special teams in what Dickinson described as a pretty successful weekend.
“The weekend in general, I told the guys we wanted to play 120 minutes of solid hockey,” Dickinson said. “We got back to worrying just about us and not our opponents. I thought we paid a little bit too much attention to Plattsburgh last week, and this week, we got back to just worrying about Brockport.”
Elmira was among the most-penalized teams in the nation entering play Friday, having accumulated 100 penalty minutes through its first four games. Its undisciplined play gave Brockport five power-play opportunities in the game, and it capitalized three times with the man advantage.
Sophomore forward James Ryan, sophomore defenseman Chris Luker and freshman forward Andrew Parks all tallied power-play goals in Brockport’s 5-2 win.
The Golden Eagles power play is now ranked seventh in Division III hockey, converting 31 percent of the time with the extra man. Brockport is now nine-for-29 so far this season with a man advantage.
“We’ve been working on it in practice, so I think everyone is just going to their spots and we’re breaking out good,” sophomore forward Shane Cavalieri, who had a power-play goal against Hobart, said. “We’re just getting shots on net, and we’re just clicking.”
Luker opened the scoring at even strength just seven minutes into the game, and Ryan’s power-play goal followed just less than five minutes later. The score was 3-0 after the first period of play, as Brockport dominated Elmira to a point that junior goalie Aaron Green only needed to make three saves in the entire period.
Luker’s second goal of the game came on the power play nine minutes into the second. Brockport took that 4-0 lead into the third period.
Elmira scored a goal early in the third at the end of a five minute major penalty assessed to sophomore forward Jeremy DeFazio for hitting from behind. DeFazio was ejected for his late second-period penalty.
Green was pulled from the game with a groin injury a few minutes later, and sophomore Jared Lockhurst was forced to come into the game. Green finished with 23 saves in two and a half periods of play.
Lockhurst gave up a goal on Elmira’s first shot on goal against him, but didn’t give up another one the rest of the game.
Lockhurst’s solid play carried into the Hobart game the following afternoon, and so did Brockport’s red-hot power play. The Statesman came into the game aggressively after falling to unranked SUNY Geneseo the previous night in overtime. After Hobart outshot Brockport 16-6 in the first period, Cavalieri scored a power-play goal with what appeared to be too many men on the ice, but it was not called by the referees.
“We had a lot of guys on the ice when we celebrated,” Dickinson said. “I think we did [have too many men on the ice]. I’m sure we got away with one. Guys were on the bench saying ‘We’ve got six, we have too many men on the ice, coach.’”
Hobart scored its lone goal with 38 seconds remaining in the second period, as freshman Carl Belizario put one past Lockhurst from the left circle to make the game 1-1.
Brockport’s penalty kill also needed to come up big, as it was penalized six times throughout the game but did not concede a goal. Brockport’s penalty kill is 29-of-34 for the season so far, holding opponents without a goal 85 percent of the time.
“Unbelievable,” Lockhurst said of his team’s penalty killing prowess. “We’d been working on it, had a great week of practice and all year, the penalty kill has been really strong for us.”
Lockhurst finished the game with 44 saves in regulation and overtime to hold the Statesmen to just one goal in the entire game. After allowing five goals in his first start against Nazareth College and six against SUNY Plattsburgh the previous weekend, Lockhurst said it felt good to come out and put up a big performance.
“I was fighting the puck a little bit the first two games, I wasn’t getting the bounces I needed,” Lockhurst said. “It was huge for me to come out here and find my legs and help the team get a point on the road against a really good Hobart team.”
Brockport returns home for its first weekend of SUNYAC play at Tuttle North Ice Arena Friday, Nov. 22, as it hosts SUNY Cortland. The Golden Eagles also host No. 5 SUNY Oswego Saturday. Both games start at 7 p.m.
Source: http://www.thestylus.net/sports/hockey-splits-hot-and-cold-weekend-on-the-ice-1.3121259?pagereq=1#.UoySk-KrGFg
