Men's Ice Hockey | 11/2/2017 2:44:00 PM
FREDONIA, N.Y. -- The Fredonia men's hockey team visits Brockport on Friday, then returns home Saturday to take on Geneseo. Both SUNYAC games have 7 p.m. starts.
With his team coming off an opening season loss last Friday at Utica, Head Coach
Jeff Meredith is approaching the game as if it were a post-season encounter rather than the first weekend of the SUNYAC regular season.
"The playoffs begin in Brockport this Friday, " he said. "That's how important the SUNYAC games are as we get ready to enter this first weekend of conference play."
The 7-3 opening season loss to Utica, ranked No. 14 at the time, seems to have served as an eye-opener for Fredonia, which entered the season at No. 5 in the SUNYAC coaches' pre-season poll. Brockport was No. xxx and Geneseo No. xx in the same poll.
"I think us getting slapped around in Utica was a good thing for us," Meredith said, "as it really forced us to look inside ourselves and re-find what had made us successful last year. The thing that we lacked at Utica.was the all-out battle, compete, and doggedly consistent work level. In order to be successful in college hockey, you have to have those things.
"The good news is that we got that out of each day of practice this week and more importantly, our guys knew that that was what was missing and they brought it. We go into Brockport after having a great week of practice and are ready for the playoffs."
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