By: JERRY REILLY, Sports Information Director
FREDONIA, N.Y. – It's a SUNYAC home weekend for the Fredonia State men's hockey team.
The Blue Devils (1-1-1 SUNYAC/3-1-1 overall) face Plattsburgh at 7 p.m. Friday. It's a rematch of the 2011 SUNYAC Tournament championship game, won by the Cardinals, 4-1, last March 5 at Plattsburgh.
Potsdam provides the opposition Saturday, also at 7 o'clock.
“This obviously is a big weekend for us in SUNYAC play,” Fredonia State head coach
Jeff Meredith said. “With Plattsburgh coming in on Friday, the Cardinals always present a pretty big challenge.
“As always, they are talented up front with their forwards. From a defensive point, the Cardinals are always stingy and back that up with solid goaltending.
“This will be a big test for us and a great challenge. I think some of our guys have been thinking about the last time we played them in the SUNYAC championship game up there last March.”
As for Saturday's opponent, Meredith says Potsdam finds itself in a similar spot as his own team. Both teams must keep pace in the standings in a league dominated by three teams, at least in the opinion of USCHO.com pollsters.
The 20-member panel voted Oswego up into the No. 1 spot this week, the Lakers first time on top this season. They received two first-place votes while Plattsburgh received two. The Cardinals are ranked No. 5 and Geneseo checks in at No. 14 in the weekly NCAA Division III Top 15.
The Blue Devils were the only other SUNYAC team to receive votes, with four.
“Potsdam will be a team that, like us, is looking to get their game organized and clicking for the season,” Meredith said. “They have a lot of new faces and one thing that I know is that when you have new faces, they come ready to play and work. We have to be ready for that.”
The Bears take a 0-2 SUNYAC/1-2 overall record into their game Friday at Buffalo State, while Plattsburgh is 2-0 SUNYAC /2-0 overall at the start of its Western New York swing.
Meredith had mixed feelings about his team's performance last weekend on the road. His team played what Meredith described as “a full 60 minutes” in a 5-1 league victory over the Morrisville State Mustangs.
“But then the next night,” he continued, “I thought we only played in spurts at Penn State. Our No. 1 goal this weekend is to play to our potential because when we do that we feel only good things happen.”
