Ice Knights reach conference final

After defeating Buffalo State College 2-0 in a semifinal matchup on Saturday March 1, the Geneseo men’s hockey team is heading to its first SUNYAC championship since the 2005-06 season. The first period remained scoreless, in which Geneseo outshot the Bengals 16-9. The Ice Knights opened the scoring early in the second with a goal from senior forward Jonathan Sucese. After first-year forward Connor Anthoine tried wrapping the puck around the back of the net past the goalie but failed, Sucese got the puck and tallied a top-shelf goal from the left circle.

Two minutes later, first-year forward Stephen Collins netted a wrist shot over the blocker of Buffalo’s goaltender to give the Ice Knights a 2-0 lead and all the offense they would need.

It was just a week earlier that Collins scored the game-winner for Geneseo against the Bengals in overtime to help lift the team to the regular season conference title.

Much of the credit for the win, and the Ice Knights’ success late in the season, is owed to sophomore goaltender Nick Horrigan, who touts a 12-1 record. This has lead Geneseo on a 6-0 streak over the last six contests.

In the game against Buffalo State, Horrigan saved all 30 of the Bengals’ shots and played outstanding in the third period to earn his first shutout of the season.

“[Horrigan] played a great game,” head coach Chris Schultz said. “He seemed to be dialed in for 60 minutes, and his rebound control was excellent.”

The Ice Knights’ penalty kill was at one of their best all season.

“We played our systems well and were able to keep them off the board on two [5 on 3] opportunities,” Schultz said. One of the opportunities saw first-year forward Jack Ceglarski receive a five-minute major penalty and a dismissal from the game.

The team now looks forward to Saturday March 8, when it will host SUNYAC rival SUNY Oswego for the conference title and a berth into the national tournament.

Geneseo is 2-0 against Oswego this season, dominating the Lakers 7-4 at home in late November and escaping Oswego with a 3-2 win on Valentine’s Day in a much more even matchup. Despite the two wins, however, the team is staying focused.

“We are doing all the right things to prepare for [the SUNYAC Championship],” senior co-captain Carson Schell said. He went on to add that the emphasis for the game is on Geneseo’s systems and to not overanalyze the opponent.

The Ice Knights’ most important game of the decade is scheduled for Saturday March 8 at 7 p.m.

“It is an honor to be playing this late in the season,” Schell said. “And we are enjoying every minute of it.”

Ice Knights crowned regular-season SUNYAC Champions

Win two games. That’s all the Geneseo Ice Knights had to do to grab the SUNYAC regular season title and secure home-ice advantage for the playoffs. And in the final regular-season weekend, that’s exactly what happened against Buffalo State College and SUNY Fredonia.

This is the first conference regular season title for Geneseo since 1990. For perspective, that was four years before Ice Knights head coach Chris Schultz laced up for his first season with the team.

It wasn’t an easy path to the weekend sweep. After two periods of the game against Buffalo State on Feb. 21, the Ice Knights were trailing 2-0 against the Bengals and fans were silent at the thought of first place slipping away. What a difference 10 minutes can make.

With time remaining in regulation, Geneseo scored two power-play goals to force overtime, in which first-year forward Stephen Collins netted the overtime goal, giving Geneseo a 3-2 win.

Earlier on, sophomore forward David Ripple put the Ice Knights on the board and changed the momentum of the game. Senior forward Zachary Vit took a shot, but the puck went wide of the net, ricocheted off the boards and bounced to Ripple, who tallied the first goal.

The Ice Knights still trailed late in the third when a Buffalo State defenseman was called for boarding with 2 minutes and 40 seconds on the clock – one last opportunity to tie the game.

Junior defenseman Jack Caradonna got the puck at the top of the left circle where junior forward Justin Scharfe charged to the back post before he received a pass from Caradonna for an easy tap-in goal for a tie game. At a key point in the game, Caradonna made an NHL play.

Overtime was short-lived, as Collins netted the winner just over 90 seconds into the extra period. The home crowd, after holding silent for most of the first two hours, erupted to celebrate an unlikely Geneseo win and the new life it breathed into its playoff destiny.

The game on Saturday Feb. 22 against Fredonia was senior night, and Geneseo was one win away from clinching first place. Senior forward Garry Childerhose made sure that Geneseo’s clincher was far less dramatic than the night before.

After junior forward Tyler Brickler opened the scoring with his 12th of the season in the opening period, Childerhose scored twice to send the Ice Knights to the locker room with a 3-0 lead. He has been in and out of the lineup the past three months – actually, he’s been in and out his entire career at Geneseo with a knee injury – but is expected to be available for the playoffs.

Brickler added a second tally, and the Ice Knights were able to cap off the regular season with a 6-3 home win.

Sophomore goaltender Nick Horrigan has won six straight and will likely get the start at the Ira Wilson Ice Arena for the SUNYAC semifinal game. Horrigan has a save percentage of .942 over that stretch.

The Ice Knights will face the lowest seed from the winners of the quarterfinal matchups on Wednesday Feb. 26. The fifth-seed SUNY Brockport Golden Eagles will visit the fourth-seed Buffalo State Bengals, while the third-seed SUNY Oswego Lakers will host the sixth-seed SUNY Fredonia Blue Devils.

The puck drops for the SUNYAC semifinal at 7 p.m. on Saturday March 1.

Tied for first, Ice Knights look to host SUNYACs

Two road victories over SUNY Oswego on Feb. 14 and SUNY Cortland on Feb. 15 have brought the Ice Knights even closer to clinching the top spot in the SUNYAC along with home ice advantage for the playoffs. Geneseo already beat the Oswego Lakers 7-4 earlier in the season at home. Since then, the Lakers rose to eighth in the nation and faced the No. 12 Ice Knights on Valentine’s Day. Prior to the game, love was not in the air for Geneseo, as sophomore defenseman Nate Brown and first-year winger Connor Anthoine sat out due to injuries.

The Ice Knights hadn’t won in Oswego since 2008 and hadn’t swept a season series against the Lakers since the 2005-2006 season.

An early scare from Oswego first-year Chris Waterstreet put his team up 1-0, but the Ice Knights responded three times before the opening period ended. Senior forward Zachary Vit scored his 18th of the season – a career high – on a Geneseo power play; junior forward Ryan Stanimir scored 23 seconds later, rebounding sophomore defenseman Matt Solomon’s missed shot; and sophomore forward David Ripple netted Geneseo’s third of the period with 45 seconds remaining, sending the Ice Knights into the intermission up 3-1.

Over the next two periods, sophomore goaltender Nick Horrigan withstood a barrage of Laker shots, particularly in the second, when his team was outshot 17-1. Horrigan made 35 saves on the day, leading Geneseo to a 3-2 win.

The following night, the Ice Knights faced Cortland, a team whose most recent win came in the previous semester. The game had the feel of the proverbial trap games Geneseo had fallen victim to against Nazareth College and SUNY Potsdam. To make matters worse, the Ice Knights were without Ripple, senior forward Zach Martin and sophomore forward Devon Rice, in addition to Anthoine and Brown.

The Ice Knights found themselves trailing 2-1 late in the second when junior forward Tyler Brickler ignited the team by stripping a Cortland defenseman and netted the tying goal. Two minutes later, first-year forward Jack Ceglarski found a rebounded shot and put it in the net.

With the wins, Geneseo now sits atop the SUNYAC, tied with SUNY Plattsburgh with 24 points, but the Ice Knights claim the tiebreaker.

Even if the Ice Knights and Plattsburgh win out (tough to do for the Cardinals – they face Oswego on Feb. 22), Geneseo will receive a first-round bye and host the SUNYAC championships.

If the Ice Knights lose, they fall to second place, still receive the bye but have to play for the championship at Plattsburgh. Obviously, the ideal situation is to host the games, which is possible but not guaranteed.

The Ice Knights host the fourth-place Buffalo State College Bengals on Friday Feb. 21 and fifth-place SUNY Fredonia on Saturday Feb. 22. Both games faceoff at 7 p.m.

Ice Knights bounce back in sweep against Brockport

The Ice Knights’ last two weeks have been quite an emotional roller coaster with crucial wins over SUNY Plattsburgh and Hamilton College sandwiched between head-scratching losses to Nazareth College and SUNY Potsdam. A common thread through Geneseo’s struggles was its inconsistent special teams’ play, a problem they overcame in back-to-back wins over SUNY Brockport.

The Ice Knights took down the Golden Eagles at Brockport on Feb. 7 with a 3-2 win, followed by a more comfortable 4-1 win on home ice the following night. Goaltender sophomore Nick Horrigan had back-to-back wins moving him to 7-1 on the season.

The Ice Knights power play struggles throughout the past month are apparent. Entering the weekend, the power play went for only 2-32. Even more frustrating was the penalty kill, which had surrendered at least one goal in nine of the past 10 games and was clicking at only 60 percent over the previous five games. Despite Brockport’s top-ranked power play rate, the penalty kill was Geneseo’s strongest element all weekend.

On Feb. 7, the Ice Knights jumped out to a 2-0 lead halfway through the first period. Forward first-year Ryan Stanimir cashed in his 10th goal of the season off an assist by forward first-year Stephen Collins, and with 4:26 left in the first, forward senior Jonathan Sucese’s centering pass banked off the foot of forward junior Justin Scharfe and through Brockport goaltender Jared Lockhurst.

Seven minutes into the second, Brockport’s first-year Nate Pelligra had a point shot that took a wild redirection off a leg and zipped past Horrigan to tie the game 2-2. Just as they did against Plattsburgh, the Ice Knights responded in power play.

Forward senior Zachary Vit, who’s setting a career-high goal-scoring season, played set-up man on the Geneseo power play when his backhand pass found defenseman junior Jack Caradonna, alone in front, to give Geneseo a 3-2 lead it did not surrender.

“Power plays get stale as teams pick up on what you’re doing and pucks aren’t going in on good chances,” head coach Chris Schultz said. “But the power play helped us to win the Plattsburgh game and it helped us to win this game tonight. Special teams are crucial.”

Collins proved to be hot again the following night against the Golden Eagles. Collins had gone scoreless in 11 of 12 games before breaking the snide against Plattsburgh with a hat trick.

Against Brockport, he opened the scoring with a wrist shot from the top of the circle just 6:30 into the game. After Ice Knights forward first-year Jack Ceglarski and Eagles sophomore Shane Cavalieri each banked pucks into the net off the feet of defensemen to make it 2-1, Collins found himself with the puck in the same spot once again. Collins responded with the same intent, this time rifling it over Lockhurst’s shoulder, off the crossbar and in the net to send Geneseo into intermission with a 3-1 lead.

Collins, again, put the game away just a minute into the third to secure another win for the Ice Knights.

The Ice Knights penalty kill was outstanding throughout the weekend, going 9-9 and fighting off a two-man advantage for Brockport late in the second.

“It was a solid weekend where we did a lot of little things well, including the [penalty kill],” assistant coach Kris Heeres said. “Guys like [senior] Carson Schell and [junior] Zach Martin blocking shots on the kill got the bench going.”

The Ice Knights leave this weekend for their final road trip, with 7 p.m. start times on Friday Feb. 14 at SUNY Oswego and Saturday Feb. 15 at SUNY Cortland.

Hockey still eyeing first place

The Geneseo Ice Knights headed into the game on Jan. 31 trailing only SUNY Plattsburgh in the conference. They walked away with a victory, but the win was short-lived as they dropped a game the following night to the last-place SUNY Potsdam Bears.

The Cardinals drove into Geneseo for a game with heavy playoff implications and found themselves in the midst of a playoff atmosphere. The 2,300 fans at the Ira S. Wilson Ice Arena were dressed all in white, with white rally towels waving overhead. The Ice Knights came out with a similar energy and controlled momentum for much of the scoreless first period.

“The difference in the game for us was the passion and elevated level of emotion from our players. They left nothing in the locker room,” head coach Chris Schultz said.

That elevated level broke a scoreless tie five minutes into the second period when forward senior Zachary Vit took a shot from the top of the right circle to beat Plattsburgh’s goaltender senior Mathieu Cadieux, one of the conference’s best goalies.

The Ice Knights beat Cadieux twice more in the period with identical shots from the identical spot on the ice, one from forward first-year Stephen Collins and the other from defenseman junior Ryan Stanimir. Cadieux entered the contest with a save percentage over .950.

Plattsburgh answered each Geneseo goal with one of its own, coming from seniors Ryan Farnan and Barry Royman along with sophomore Connor Gorman. The score tied 3-3 as the two teams traded punches early in the third.

When forward junior Alex Brenton of the Cardinals was called for slashing, the Ice Knights had their opportunity to take the lead for good.

Though the Ice Knights’ power play had scored just once in its past 26 attempts, and the Cardinals’ penalty kill was one of the nation’s best at over 95 percent, Geneseo managed to work the puck to the front of the net. This is where forward sophomore David Ripple shoveled the loose puck past Cadieux for a 4-3 lead.

Winger junior Justin Scharfe’s empty netter cemented a 5-3 win for Geneseo in front of the raucous student body.

The Ice Knights had the SUNYAC in their own hands and could seal first place by winning the remainder of their schedule. The last-place Bears were the first hurdle in their path and proved to be a big one.

The Ice Knights came out of the gate sluggish with sloppy defensive zone play, confusion during the breakout and ultimately a handful of turnovers that cost them. Bears sophomore Billy Pascalli stripped Geneseo defenseman junior Jack Caradonna in the corner of the defensive zone just three and a half minutes into the game and found freshman Tommy Telesca in the slot for a 1-0 Bears lead.

The Ice Knights responded with two goals in the first from Vit and Scharfe to give the Ice Knights a 2-1 lead heading into the second period, but the Ice Knights remained under siege for the majority of the game.

A sharp-angled drive from Potsdam senior Adam Place late in the second period squeaked under the arm of Geneseo goaltender junior Bryan Haude and crept over the line to tie the score at two. That was the turning point of the contest.

Geneseo’s power play struggled, despite the previous night’s success, going 0-6.

Controversial refereeing led to Potsdam goals and a subsequent 3-2 lead. At one point, Ripple had his feet kicked out from under him behind the Geneseo net, an obvious slew foot. Nothing was called as the puck was slid to senior Mike Arnold in front, who gave Potsdam a 4-2 lead with 10 minutes remaining. Pascalli’s empty-netter made it a 5-3 final.

With the loss, Geneseo once again looks to capture the regular season SUNYAC title. The fight continues with two consecutive games against the SUNY Brockport Golden Eagles. The Ice Knights travel to Brockport on Friday Feb. 7 and host on Saturday Feb. 8. The puck drops at 7 p.m. both nights.

Hockey looks to bounce back from tough loss

As the Geneseo Ice Knights’ season enters its final month, it is important to recall an old sports adage: Teams are never as bad as they appear when they’re losing and never as good as they appear when they’re winning. A 4-1 loss on home ice to Nazareth College on Saturday Jan. 25 dropped the Ice Knights to No. 14 in the national rankings – a wake-up call heading into the game with No. 4 SUNY Plattsburgh on Friday Feb. 1 for first place in the SUNYAC.

After a 5-1 victory over the Hamilton College Continentals on Jan. 24, the Ice Knights returned home for a non-conference contest against Nazareth. The Golden Flyers, with only four wins on the season, were coming off a shocking overtime win against No. 11 Utica College the night before.

The Ice Knights opened the scoring just under six minutes in with a goal from forward senior Zach Vit – his third goal in two games.

That was all the 1,700 fans at Ira Wilson Arena would have to celebrate, thanks to Nazareth’s goalkeeper Ed Zdolshek. He recorded 46 saves on the night, 20 of them in the third period. Zdolshek is 2-1 in his career against Geneseo with a save percentage of .953.

Geneseo’s penalty kill dropped down to 78.5 percent efficiency in the game. The Ice Knights were twice at a two-man disadvantage, which Nazareth was able to capitalize on. The Golden Flyers were also able to score on a power play off a goal from forward first-year David Seward. Conversely, the Ice Knights were unable to find the back of the net on eight power play opportunities.

It is often hard to find fault with a team when it is winning. That was the case with Geneseo during its 10-1 stretch dating back to Nov. 22. What a difference two weeks can make.

A 5-1 loss to unranked Elmira College coupled with the Nazareth upset exposes an inconvenient Ice Knight truth: Geneseo struggles to overcome hot goalkeeping.

A hot goalkeeper is difficult for any team to break through. For the Ice Knights, however, the concern isn’t so much who’s stopping the puck but who is shooting it. And based on the lineup juggling from the past weekend, the coaching staff knows it.

Forward sophomore David Ripple has two goals in his last 15 games. First-year Stephen Collins hasn’t scored in 11 of his last 12, and first-years Connor Anthoine and Jack Ceglarski have only combined for two goals. For the amount of ice time these players command, it is safe to say the Ice Knights need more scoring.

This isn’t to say these players haven’t played well, but the truth is that when Vit or forward junior Tyler Brickler can’t break through offensively, the Ice Knights haven’t had many other answers. They did not have answers for Nazareth.

They’ll need answers against Plattsburgh to get back on track and to possibly put the team in the driver’s seat for a tournament berth in March.u