On Nov. 20 the Ice Knights hosted one of their biggest conference rivals, SUNY Brockport, and came away with a hard-fought 2-1 victory to improve to 4-5 on the season.
Geneseo opened up the scoring early in the first period on a power-play goal by sophomore David Arduin. It was the only power-play conversion for Geneseo out of eight opportunities that night. Senior Phil Rose and sophomore Jake Yard picked up the assists.
Head coach Chris Schultz pointed out the Ice Knights' inability to capitalize on power-play opportunities. "Our power play is hurting us right now," he said in an e-mail. "We could easily have two more wins if we had a power play working at 20 percent."
Senior Jeff MacPhee said he agreed with his coach. "We need to improve there, we're making some adjustments," he said. Schultz and MacPhee both pointed out that Geneseo had been swamped by injuries as of late. "I've never seen anything like this," MacPhee said. "It's tough with injuries and illnesses, especially last week when both of our goalies were out during practice, but we can't dwell on that." Schultz also noted that Geneseo's top power-play threat, sophomore Jonathan Redlick, has been unable to play for several weeks now.
The Ice Knights made it 2-0 at 7 minutes, 41 seconds of the second period when sophomore Stefan Decosse scored his second goal of the season off assists from senior Sebastian Panetta and freshman Nick Ryan. The Golden Eagles scored their lone goal of the match after pulling their goalie at 18:21 of the final period.
Freshman goalie Adrian Rubeniuk turned in another outstanding performance for Geneseo with 29 saves throughout the night. Rubeniuk was later named SUNYAC Ice Hockey Goalie of the Week. Sophomore goalie Cory Gershon is out this semester with a broken wrist that he suffered during Geneseo's upset win over Hobart.
With this win, Geneseo improved to 3-3-0 in SUNYAC play. The Ice Knights travel to SUNY Cortland on Friday and then face off against No. 1 SUNY Oswego on Saturday. The Oswego Lakers recently made it to the top of the polls for Division III hockey, tying with SUNYAC rival Plattsburgh with 282 points.
"They're a very good team but we know what to expect, you have to look at it like any other game," MacPhee said regarding the team's upcoming road trip. "You have to respect who you're playing but not give them so much respect that you take yourself out of your game."