Saturday, January 25, 2014

Quick hits: Golden Eagles hockey falls at Morrisville

By: Brandon Wood
@Brandonwood27

It was a tale of two games for the College at Brockport's hockey team. Following a 7-3 win Friday at SUNY Morrisville, the Golden Eagles (5-9-3 overall, 2-5-1 SUNYAC) were unable to pick up another two crucial SUNYAC points in Morrisville Saturday. The final score was 6-3.

With a chance to make ground on SUNY Fredonia and SUNY Cortland who played each other tonight, Brockport was only able to come out of Morrisville the way it entered: tied with Morrisville at seventh place in the SUNYAC. The top six teams make the SUNYAC playoffs, and Brockport hasn't made the playoffs since the 2009-10 season.

With Cortland tying on the road in Fredonia, Brockport remains two points out of the last playoff spot.

The Golden Eagles specialty teams helped win the game Friday night as it scored two power-play goals in two attempts, killed off four penalties and scored its first shorthanded goal of the season.

Specialty teams was a lot more even in Saturdays game, as Morrisville scored an early power-play goal, and scored on two of its five chances with the extra man.

Brockport went two-for-four on the power play, with sophomore forward Chase Nieuwendyk scoring both power play goals, his fourth and fifth of the season, moving him into first place on the team in point scoring with 16 points.

Brockport had an opportunity to get back into the game late in the third period when it was down 5-2. Morrisville took a minor interference penalty and a major penalty a few minutes later. With the 5-on-3 advantage, Nieuwendyk put one in the back of the net, but Brockport wasn't able to score again with more than three minutes remaining in the major penalty.

The Golden Eagles inability to score with the man advantage kept the score at 5-3 and there would be no more goals until Morrisville deposited the puck into an empty net in the waning minutes of the game.

Brockport now sits two points behind the last playoff spot with a big home weekend coming up for the Golden Eagles next weekend. Last place SUNY Potsdam visits Tuttle North Ice Arena Friday, Jan. 31 and SUNY Plattsburgh comes to town the following night. Both games start at 7 p.m.

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Junior goaltender Aaron Green was pulled from the game early in the second period after allowing his third goal on just eight shots. Friday's starter, sophomore Jared Lockhurst gave up two goals on 17 shots against him.

Morrisville's goalie, Jakob Rasmussen, who made just his fourth start of the season faced 38 shots and was able to turn away 35 of them.

Brockport outshot Morrisville 38-25.

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Junior Troy Polino scored late in the first period to tie the game for Brockport, his third goal of the weekend. It was Polino's fifth goal of the season.

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Sophomore Shane Cavalieri, who is tied for the fourth-most points on the team this season, ended a five-game streak in which he recorded a point. Cavalieri has four goals, eight assists and 12 points for the Golden Eagles.

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SUNYAC Standings (after Saturday, Jan. 25 games)

*2 points for a conference win, one point for a tie

1. SUNY Plattsburgh (8-0-2 SUNYAC) – 18 points
2. SUNY Geneseo (7-1) – 14 points
3. Buffalo State College (6-3-2) – 14 points
4. SUNY Oswego (5-3-1) – 11 points
5. SUNY Cortland (3-6-2) – 8 points
6. SUNY Fredonia (2-4-3) – 7 points
7. The College at Brockport (2-5-1) – 5 points
8. SUNY Morrisville (2-7-1) – 5 points
9. SUNY Potsdam (1-7) – 2 points


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