E-mail this pageNews and Press Releases
Cardinals are Preseason #1 in NCAA Division III Men's Hockey
08:47pm EDT, 27 Oct 2009MINNEAPOLIS -The Plattsburgh State men's hockey team will start the 2009-10 season where it finished last year: ranked No. 1 in the nation by USCHO.com. The Cardinals received five first-place votes and a total of 253 points to edge defending NCAA Division III champion Neumann (9 first-place votes, 245) by eight points. Click Here for complete USCHO.com NCAA Division III Top 15 Poll .
Including last season in which it spent the last 14 weeks atop the national rankings, Plattsburgh has extended a school record of 15 consecutive weeks at No. 1 in the NCAA Division III poll of 15 coaches and five media members.
Voters apparently were not phased by the fact that Plattsburgh lost a combined 77 percent of its offensive points off last year's squad that went 24-2-2 overall, 15-0-1 in SUNYAC to set a school record for conference wins and captured State University of New York Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament championships.
The Cardinals, however, do return a solid core of veterans and have a talented recruiting class of 13 freshmen to stay competitive. The list of returnees starts with All-America junior forward Dylan Clarke who racked up career highs of 23 assists and 39 points to earn All-SUNYAC First Team honors in 2009. Also returning on offense is Phil Farrow who had all-conference-type numbers of 12 goals and 26 assists for 38 points--all career highs. Other scorers in double digits include Eric Satim (11+18=29), Ryan Corry (5+21=26), Kyle Kudroch (10+5=15), Andrew Willock (6+8=14), Dan Sliasis (4+10=14), Kyle Taylor (6+5=11), Vick Schlueter (5+5=10) and Mike Kavanagh (4+6=10).
Corry, who made the all-SUNYAC first team as a sophomore, is the team's top returning defenseman. One of the top-scoring blueliners in the nation, he also helped a stingy Plattsburgh defense that ranked No. 1 in SUNYAC and was third in Division III scoring defense at 1.93 per game and also allowed 54 goals for the fewest in team history a year ago.
Coach Bob Emery, who is in his 21st year at the helm, will be piloting a young squad of 20 freshmen and sophomores that seeks a third-straight SUNYAC championship and 20th overall, as well as the program's NCAA-record 18th Division III Tournament berth.
Plattsburgh opens the new season in earnest this weekend hosting SUNYAC opponents Geneseo and Brockport on Friday and Saturday, both games starting at 7 p.m. in Stafford Ice Arena.
Newer Articles Older Articles
Contact Information
If you would like more information on any of the following news releases, please contact:
Brendan Kinney, Executive Director of Marketing and Public Relations
SUNY Plattsburgh
Phone: (518) 564-2090
E-mail: news@plattsburgh.edu