FREDONIA, N.Y. – The 2019-20 men's hockey season begins Friday night when the Fredonia State Blue Devils play host to the Morrisville State Mustangs at Steele Hall. Puck-drop is scheduled for 7 p.m.
The teams will also meet at 7 p.m. Saturday in Steele Hall. Doors open both nights at 6 p.m.
Head Coach Jeff Meredith, the dean of SUNYAC coaches starting his 32nd season behind the Blue Devil bench, will be sending out a mix of veterans and newcomers against the Mustangs. While last year's team was senior-laden, the 2018-19 roster is comprised of five seniors, six juniors, nine sophomores, and seven freshmen.
"We graduated some good players, some good people, and excellent leaders," Meredith said in a recorded interview with Josh Schmitt of campus radio station WCVF (LISTEN to the full interview). "The big challenge for us now is filling some of those voids."
The veteran group is led by wingers Jacob Haynes and Victor Tracy, defensemen Charlie Manley and Tommy Martyn, and goaltender Anton Rosén. Haynes and Tracy are the top returning scorers with 26 goals and 18 goals, respectively, in their college careers. A senior, Haynes has accumulated 63 points for the Blue Devils over three seasons – and a team-high 71 games played – while Tracy, a junior, has 37 points in 54 games.
Manley – a veteran of 70 college games, including two seasons at the Division 1 level – and Martyn are co-captains, while Rosén has an 18-8-5 career record in goal. His best run of success came as a sophomore during the Blue Devils' second-place finish in the conference tournament. "In many ways," Meredith told Schmitt, "your goaltender really has to be the backbone of your group. He's the guy that bails you out when things aren't going so well ... You're going to need him to steal a game."
Meredith said he sees an expanded role for Manley in 2019-20, who played his freshman and sophomore seasons at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. "He did a really good job last year," the coach said, "but he was just starting to scratch the surface, just starting to get comfortable. I would think Charlie would log a lot of minutes this year. He just's a really well-rounded, high-end defenseman."
Fredonia State is coming off a 15-8-4 season, which included an 8-6-2 SUNYAC record, the most conference wins since the 2009-10 season. The Blue Devils advanced to the semifinals of the 2019 SUNYAC Tournament before falling to No. 2 ranked Geneseo. Morrisville State was 4-19-2 and 2-13-1 last season.
The Blue Devils have won the last five meetings between the two teams, including a pair of 3-2 victories last February at Morrisville. Fredonia State leads the all-time series, 21-6. Yet despite that discrepancy, Meredith said the Blue Devils should know better than to take anyone opponent for granted.
"We have to make sure." he said in the radio interview, "that we respect and just play our game and don't prepare a certain way for certain opponents. I think it would be a real, real error in judgment of our athletes if we don't show them respect."