FREDONIA, N.Y. – The Fredonia State men's hockey team returns to SUNYAC action Friday night when Cortland visits the Steele Hall Ice Arena.
The Blue Devils have played six straight non-conference games since losing to Morrisville State, 2-1, on Dec. 4 at home. They are 3-5 in the SUNYAC.
"It is great to be able to get back into SUNYAC play where the games seem bigger with playoff lives at stake,” Fredonia State head coach
Jeff Meredith said. “Cortland is two points behind us in the standings so that makes this a huge game for both teams.”
The Blue Devils have won three straight home games, including a pair last weekend over Franklin Pierce. This weekend's competition will be decidedly tougher. After Cortland on Friday comes Oswego on Saturday. The Lakers are ranked No. 1 in the USCHO.com NCAA Division I poll.
Both games start at 7 p.m.
“Again, special teams will be key for us in this second half of league play,” Meredith said. “Our power play has been doing well out of conference, but in conference we are only ranked fifth out of nine teams despite being 14th in the nation (out of 71 teams) at 24.1%.
“On the other side of the puck while killing penalties, the Blue Devils are first in the conference in kill percentage while we are 10th in the nation at 87.3 percent. It is important that we continue to stay disciplined and stay out of the penalty box, which has been a strong suit to this point in the year.”
The other Fredonia State winter teams are on the road. The basketball teams are on their North Country trip, Friday night at Plattsburgh and Saturday afternoon at Potsdam. The swimming and diving team visits Edinboro University for a Friday night meet. The track and field team travels to Case Western for a Saturday meet. It'll mark the head coaching debut of
Tom Wilson.
