Brockport swept by Geneseo, fails to climb into playoff position

By Brandon Wood
@Brandonwood27

During a weekend that it could’ve moved into a playoff position because SUNY Cortland was idle, the College at Brockport’s ice hockey team was swept by nearest conference rival SUNY Geneseo in a home-and-home series.

After trailing 2-0 near the end of the first period Friday, Brockport (6-12-3 overall, 3-8-1 SUNYAC) stormed back with a goal from sophomore Chase Nieuwendyk and tied it six minutes into the second period on freshman Nate Pelligra's first collegiate goal.

Unfortunately for Pelligra, he was called on a questionable tripping call 20 seconds later and SUNY Geneseo scored what would be the game-winning goal on the ensuing power play. Brockport lost at home on its annual Saves-for-a-Cure night 3-2.

Geneseo opened the scoring six minutes into the game and doubled its advantage with four minutes remaining after the puck hit Geneseo junior Justin Scharfe's skates and found its way past Brockport goalie Jared Lockhurst. Lockhurst finished the game with 25 saves.

Nieuwendyk answered for the Golden Eagles with 26 seconds remaining in the first period when he intercepted a Geneseo pass, broke away and backhanded a shot between Geneseo goalie Nick Horrigan's five-hole. It was Nieuwendyk's seventh goal of the season.

Pelligra tied the game for Brockport in the second period when his shot was deflected in off a Geneseo player.

"It felt great to finally get [my first goal] out of the way," Pelligra said. "I've been getting my opportunities so I just fired the puck at the net and thankfully it went in."

It was just 20 seconds later that Pelligra was sent to the box for tripping despite Pelligra appearing to have possession of the puck when the call was made. Geneseo capitalized with 17 seconds remaining in the penalty to score what would eventually be the game-winning goal.

"Tough break there with the tripping call," Pelligra said. "I wasn't too happy about it because I have been in the box the past few games a lot, so it's a tough one."

While Geneseo scored its game-winning goal on the power play, Brockport's power play failed to produce a goal for the first time in six games. It finished 0-for-3 with the man advantage on the night.

When Brockport traveled to Geneseo Saturday, its power play continued to struggle as it went 0-for-6 in a 4-1 loss. The Golden Eagles power play entered the weekend with the sixth best power play in Division III hockey.

Sophomore defenseman Chris Luker, who operates the point for Brockport's first power play unit, said the Golden Eagles struggle was because Geneseo did an extraordinary job of blocking shots throughout the weekend.

"They were just blocking everything they saw," Luker said. "They were jumping four guys in front of the puck sometimes and smothering us up high. We tried going down low a couple of times but the puck was jumping over our sticks.”

Brockport went down early in the game six minutes in after Geneseo junior Stephen Collins scored on a shot Lockhurst didn’t see because he was screened. The Ice Knights scored another goal when the puck went through Lockhurst’s five-hole after bouncing off sophomore defenseman Chad Cummings for an own goal. Lockhurst finished Saturday’s game with 30 saves.

Brockport’s lone goal in the game came four minutes later when sophomore Shane Cavalieri scored his fifth goal of the season.

Collins finished the game with a hat trick as he tallied the other two Geneseo goals.

The Golden Eagles managed to put 33 shots on net, but was stifled by junior goalie Nick Horrigan, who was also in net for Geneseo’s win Friday. Horrigan made several highlight-reel saves throughout the night. Brockport freshman James Ryan said he thought Brockport played better than the score indicated and that Horrigan was the reason the score wasn’t closer.

“I thought the effort was good, we outshot them for most of the game,” Ryan said. “Their goalie played extremely well and it was just unfortunate that we couldn’t beat him.”

By losing both games this weekend, Brockport remained one point behind Cortland for the final SUNYAC playoff spot with only four games remaining on its schedule. The Golden Eagles play at Cortland Friday, Feb. 14 in their next game for a chance to jump into a playoff position.

Brockport Head Coach Brian Dickinson stressed the importance of beating Cortland this coming weekend.

“We gave away two points [earlier this season] to Cortland in our own rink because we weren’t ready to play them on an emotional level for 60 minutes,” Dickinson said. “All of our focus is on Cortland because we want to win and leap-frog them and control our own destiny.”

Brockport also plays at No. 10 SUNY Oswego Saturday, Feb. 15. The Golden Eagles haven’t defeated the Lakers since 2003. Puck drop for the Cortland and Oswego games are both scheduled for 7 p.m.

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By failing to register a point Saturday night against Geneseo, Nieuwendyk ended his team-leading seven game point streak. Since Cavalieri, junior Troy Polino and sophomore Jeremy DeFazio were the only players to get points in Saturday's game and none of them registered any points Friday, they are all tied for the team lead at one.