By Brandon Wood
@Brandonwood27
A 7-2 loss and an early exit from the SUNYAC playoffs was
all the College at Brockport’s ice hockey team could manage in its first trip
to the playoffs in four seasons against Buffalo State College Wednesday, Feb.
26.
Numerous defensive breakdowns and five goals for Buffalo
State in the second period doomed the Golden Eagles (10-13-3 overall), which trailed 4-0 at one point in the game.
“This is not the way you want to end the season,” Brockport
Head Coach Brian Dickinson said after seeing a season long four-game winning
streak come to an end.
Buffalo State freshman Nick Berst opened the scoring 13
minutes into the game and he also scored shorthanded with just one minute
remaining to double the Bengals’ advantage. Brockport finished the season with
a 2-11 record when allowing the first goal in all games this season, including
the playoff game.
The Golden Eagles began to unravel in the second period,
allowing all of Buffalo State’s five goals in the period on odd-man rushes and
backdoor goals.
“A couple times we pinched in when we shouldn’t have,”
sophomore defenseman Chad Cummings said. “A couple of bad bounces hopped over
our sticks and they took it the other way and capitalized on their
opportunities. That was just how it was going tonight, we couldn’t get a bounce
to go our way.”
Bengals junior Dan Turgeon scored twice in the first ten
minutes on odd-man rushes to make it 4-0 Buffalo State.
The Golden Eagles responded with two goals in a minute to
cut the lead to 4-2.
Sophomore Chris Luker scored a power-play goal for Brockport
13 minutes into the period. Despite having six chances with a man advantage,
the Golden Eagles’ No. 7 nationally ranked power play only scored once in the
game.
Senior Chris Cangro added a goal one minute, 11 seconds
later. Cangro was wide open to the left of the Buffalo State goal and buried
the puck in the back of the net after a nice pass from senior Brendon Rothfuss
across the crease.
The Bengals didn’t allow Brockport to get closer than two
goals and put the game out of reach with three goals in three minutes late in
the third period.
Junior Aaron Green allowed seven goals on 27 shots, but
Dickinson said the number of goals Green gave up was misleading due to the
amount of odd-man rushes the Bengals had.
“Couldn’t fault [Green] for anything,” Dickinson said. “You
see 7-2, most coaches are probably looking to make a goalie change there but
Green did such a fantastic job of getting us here with the run of four games he
was nothing short of excellent. When they’re just constantly passing backdoor
and we’re not picking guys up and they’re putting the puck in the empty side,
that’s not something you can fault the goaltender for.”
Neither team scored in the final period of the game, but
Dickinson said he liked how his team played in the final frame.
“I thought we did a great job in the third period after the
way the second period went for us and we had some scoring chances but we
couldn’t finish,” Dickinson said. “I was proud of the way we finished [the game].”
Brockport outshot the Bengals 14-10 in the third period.
The Golden Eagles will lose six members of their team to
graduation, including Cangro, alternate captain Rothfuss and captain Matt
DeLuca, who were all on the ice against the Bengals. Forwards Steve Sachman and
Bobby Conner, and defenseman Sean Wallace are the other seniors on the team.
