{"id":30956,"date":"2010-01-28T15:06:32","date_gmt":"2010-01-28T21:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2010\/01\/28\/this-week-in-sunyac-jan-28-2010\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:57:51","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:57:51","slug":"this-week-in-sunyac-jan-28-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2010\/01\/28\/this-week-in-sunyac-jan-28-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in SUNYAC: Jan. 28, 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"
“Somehow, I get the feeling after the weekend is over, the only thing that is going to change amongst this cluster is some shuffling around within.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/i><\/p>\n
That’s what I wrote in last week’s column. That’s exactly what happened.<\/p>\n
Sure, the spread amongst the gap widened by one point. But, that’s like saying Calista Flockhart’s waistline expanded. It’s still small.<\/p>\n
Now, there is a three-way tie for fourth place between Brockport, Cortland, and Geneseo, who all split their weekend. Potsdam slipped from fourth to seventh, one point behind those three teams thanks to dropping both games. Three points behind the Bears are Morrisville (now with two games in hand) and Buffalo State.<\/p>\n
“Every game is important,” Geneseo coach Chris Schultz said. “Every SUNYAC game you play is going to be a hard fought battle. It’s already proven there’s not a soft team in this league, and that’s the way it should be.”<\/p>\n
Geneseo knows all about hard fought games as they had a quite a battle against Potsdam which nearly saw the game get out of hand in the final period.<\/p>\n
“There’s got to be an incredible amount of focus to win hockey games in this conference. And we kept our composure,” Schultz said.<\/p>\n
The game started out innocently enough. Stefan Decosse gave Geneseo a first period lead. Matt Viola and Sy Nutkevitch reversed the tide in the second for a Potsdam 2-1 lead. Before the period was over, Kaz Iwamoto scored on the power play to knot it up.<\/p>\n
Geneseo took the lead on another two-man advantage power play with a Sebastian Panetta goal. Colin MacLennan returned the favor 45 seconds later with a shorthanded tally. Then came the fun and games.<\/p>\n
Clint Olson was awarded the winning goal when the puck never went into the net during a power play. The ensuing meltdown by Potsdam eventually resulted in a Viola unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and a Fraser Smith major and game disqualification for leveling Decosse shortly after play resumed. The result was a clinching goal by Dan Brown.<\/p>\n
Andy Rubeniuk was the star of the game, making 37 saves for the win. At times he outright robbed Potsdam.<\/p>\n
“I think overall we let our emotions get the best of us,” Potsdam coach Chris Bernard said. “It was a heated game. We were playing with a lot of heart, a lot of guts, but not necessarily a lot of intelligence.”<\/p>\n
“Potsdam is going to be a dangerous team come playoff team,” Schultz said. “They got four real difference makers on their team in terms of offensive capabilities.”<\/p>\n
Those difference makers couldn’t make the difference the night before. <\/p>\n
Potsdam jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Mike Foy and Matt Rhymer, the latter on the power play. However, Brockport fought back as Todd Sheridan kept the Bears off the scoreboard the rest of the night, winding up with 36 saves.<\/p>\n
Justin Noble got a man-advantage goal before the end of the first period, and Adam Korol scored the lone goal in the second to tie it. James Cody got the game winner early in the third on the power play and Adam Shoff put the game away with an empty netter.<\/p>\n
Despite the two losses, Bernard was happy with how the team rebounded after the Brockport game for the Geneseo contest.<\/p>\n
“I’m really proud of our guys,” he said. “I didn’t think we had our best effort [against Brockport]. I thought we were playing a little bit selfish hockey. We got away from our systems. Our guys did everything that they could to reinvest in our program, to stay positive, to stay upbeat, to do things we need to do to win games. It ended up being a great effort [against Geneseo].”<\/p>\n
The other key contest amongst this cluster was Cortland defeating Buffalo State, 4-2. The Red Dragons scored twice 2:33 apart in the first period by Jake Saville and Alex Arthur. Trevor McKinney got one back for the Bengals early in the second on a delayed penalty. Chris Kaleta restored the two-goal lead a few minutes later.<\/p>\n
Jarret Gold made it 4-1 early in the third while Nick Petriello got a too little, too late goal with five minutes left to close out the scoring.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, up front the key game saw Oswego survive against Fredonia, eventually winning, 3-1, giving the Lakers a five point margin over third place. After a scoreless first period, Jon Whitelaw got a power-play score at 7:58 of the second.<\/p>\n
Oswego finally felt comfortable after two goals early in the third by Stephan MallaroA on the power play and Eric Selleck. Bryan Ross broke the shutout a couple of minutes later as Kyle Gunn-Taylor made 17 saves.<\/p>\n
“On Saturday, there were a couple of penalties we took that I’ll like to not have taken,” Fredonia coach Jeff Meredith said. “Against anybody, you’re going to be behind the 8-ball. Against Oswego, you’re going to pay for it.”<\/p>\n
After taking a 2-0 lead in the first only to have Geneseo tie it up in the second, Plattsburgh needed two early third period goals by Dylan Clarke and Kyle Kudroch en route to a 4-3 victory … Kody Van Rentergem got a 5-0 shutout for Fredonia over Cortland with 21 saves as Jordan Oye scored twice … After letting up the first goal just over a minute in, Oswego rolled over Buffalo State, 10-1, as Eric Selleck tallied twice and added three assists … Plattsburgh scored two shorthanded goals by Kyle Taylor and Jared Docking on the same power play to easily beat Brockport, 7-1.<\/p>\n
As if Oswego doesn’t have enough whiteouts sitting on the shores of Lake Ontario, they are going to produce one inside the Campus Center Ice Arena for the game of the week against archrival Plattsburgh. Fans are encouraged to wear white as the school will be handing out white towels to the first 2,000 fans.<\/p>\n
The new rink has not been a blessing for top ranked Oswego when they face Plattsburgh as they have yet to beat the Cardinals in it. This year, a win would be huge for Oswego as it would virtually clinch them first place and home ice throughout the playoffs. Another Plattsburgh win in Oswego would result in these two powers fighting it out down the stretch.<\/p>\n