The long-awaited 2015-2016 season begins this
Friday with a weekend of SUNYAC play.
On Friday the Golden Eagles host Cortland for a 7:00 affair. The Red Dragons were 9-13-3 last season and split the season series with Brockport, winning the first game 5-4 and losing the second one 3-1.
This year’s team will be without Nick Zappia, who had an absolutely stellar senior year with a 24-23-47 line. But, that doesn’t mean the team is lacking in firepower. Sophomores Dan Broderick and Darren McCormick should continue to confound opponents. Broderick had a great 17-23-40 line last year while McCormick’s stats were 9-24-33. Another fellow to watch out for is Tommy Nolan who had 10 goals last season, his first. As those three men continue their maturation on the ice, they will be a constant source of frustration for Brockport and the rest of the SUNYAC for the next 3 seasons.
On Friday the Golden Eagles host Cortland for a 7:00 affair. The Red Dragons were 9-13-3 last season and split the season series with Brockport, winning the first game 5-4 and losing the second one 3-1.
This year’s team will be without Nick Zappia, who had an absolutely stellar senior year with a 24-23-47 line. But, that doesn’t mean the team is lacking in firepower. Sophomores Dan Broderick and Darren McCormick should continue to confound opponents. Broderick had a great 17-23-40 line last year while McCormick’s stats were 9-24-33. Another fellow to watch out for is Tommy Nolan who had 10 goals last season, his first. As those three men continue their maturation on the ice, they will be a constant source of frustration for Brockport and the rest of the SUNYAC for the next 3 seasons.
While Cortland can score a lot of goals, they can
allow a bunch, too. They allow too many shots on goal and their goaltenders
Drew Weigman and Kollyn Jones always seem to get a workout and they perform admirably under such barrages. They average 35 shots faced per game. So,
Brockport will have its chances against Cortland.
It will be a tough game, but with the home ice advantage Brockport should come out on top.
There’s no such thing as an easy game in SUNYAC, and Brockport understands that both on Friday and heading into Saturday’s game against Oswego…at Oswego (this season, all but two of Brockport’s SUNYAC weekends see them at home and on the road, rather than hosting two home games or traveling twice).
Oswego was, well, Oswego last year, playing at the
Lakers usual high level. They finished 19-5-4. Although they lost the SUNYAC
championship to Plattsburgh, they continued on in the playoffs where they beat
Hobart and lost to Adrian.
Brockport was very competitive with Oswego last
year, tying them 4-4 (at Oswego no less) while falling to them 3-1 at home.
As usual, Oswego brings a dominating offensive philosophy
to the ice. 7 players had 24 or more points last season and 5 of them return
this season. Shawn Hulshof had 20 goals last season while his line mate Alex
Botten had 29 assists. On special teams, watch for Matt Galati, who had 8 goals
on the man advantage. Also, Kenny Neil is no slouch, either, as he lit the lamp
5 times on the power play.
By keeping the puck in the opponents’ half of the
ice, Oswego needs netminders who can save the day when needed and they surely
have that in Matt Zawadski (.922) and senior Justin Gilbert (.933). They have
some electric defensemen in front of them, too, as four returning defensemen
had 10 or more points last year.
Saturday’s game will be tough, especially after a
high-energy game on Friday and the long commute on Saturday. The Golden Eagles’
defensemen will have to be at the top of their game and it will be up to
Brockport goalie Jared Lockhurst to quiet the Oswego crowd.
