SUNY Cortland Sport Clubs

November 15, 2009
Cortland, NY

The Red Dragons ice hockey club capitalized on the power play and pushed their win streak to six by defeating the Cornell Big Red in a pivotal NECHL matchup last night. Cortland (6-2, 3-2 NECHL) took advantage of several Big Red penalties and scored five power play goals en route to defeating Cornell 6-4. Cortland jumped out to a 3-1 lead after the first period and a 5-3 lead after two periods before Paul Chamberlain scored the sixth and final Cortland goal of the night in the third period to seal the victory. With the goal, Chamberlain completed the first Red Dragon hat trick of the season. Granice, Oliverio, and Tracy also added goals for Cortland.

The club looks to continue their winning ways with a game against Oswego at home on Saturday, 11/21 at 6pm. Admission is free! Check back soon for scores and updates!

November 6-8, 2009
Rochester, NY/Cortland, NY

The SUNY Cortland ice hockey club enjoyed a successful weekend, sweeping three games and improving their record to 5-2 on the season. On Friday night, the Red Dragons traveled to Rochester to take on St. John Fisher in a non-conference matchup. Despite sloppy play, Cortland was able to pull out a 2-1 victory thanks to two goals from Joe Laffin and solid play from freshman goaltender Matt Scanlan.

On Saturday Cortland returned home for a game against conference rival Penn State Berks. Since the inception of the league in 2007-2008, Cortland had never beaten the Nittany Ice Lions (0-5), including last year’s 5-4 NECHL semi-final shootout loss. Cortland would have their revenge though, jumping out to a quick 2-0 lead after the first period. Cortland got into penalty trouble in the second period, but the club was able to weather the storm and maintain and 4-2 lead after 2 periods. Penn State rallied in the third period climbing to within a goal at 5-4, but the Red Dragon defense held and goaltender Nathan Mellow (39 saves) made some big saves down the stretch to preserve a hard-fought 6-4 win, Cortland’s first ever over Penn State. Cortland used balanced scoring in the victory, getting goals from 6 different players: Chamberlain, Fitzgerald, Granice, Purcell, Smith, and Tracy.

On Sunday night, Cortland kept riding their wave of success as they welcomed non-conference opponent RIT to Alumni Arena.  Kyle Smith (2) got the scoring going midway through the first period, with assists coming from Miele and Laffin. In the second period, Marc Plante netted the game winner and Kyle Smith added his second of the night to seal the victory over the Tigers, 3-1.

With the three wins, Cortland (5-2, 2-2 NECHL) pushed their win streak to 5. The club looks to put the streak on the line this weekend with a pair of NECHL games against local rival Cornell. The Red Dragons travel to Ithaca on Saturday night before playing the back end of the home-and-home series against the Big Red at Alumni Arena on Sunday afternoon. Game time for Sunday is set for 3:30pm. Come support your SUNY Cortland ice hockey club! Admission is free!

October 17, 2009
New Brunswick, NJ

The Cortland ice hockey club suffered its first loss of the season as they traveled to Rutgers University this past Saturday. It didn’t look promising when Cortland gave up two quick goals in the first period and eventually were down 4-0 at one point of the game. Down four goals going into the third period, the Red Dragons knew it was time to make an effort at a comeback. The line of Joe Laffin, Kyle Smith and Scott Miele started to take control and about two minutes into the third period, Joe Laffin netted his first of the season unassisted as he beat the goalie through the five hole. Their scoring streak didn’t last long as their iffy positional play led to another Rutgers goal to make it 5-1 to pretty much seal the deal for the Ice Knights. About five minutes after the fifth Rutgers goal, the line of Laffin, Smith and Miele struck once more as Smith gave a feed to Miele to net his first career collegiate goal.

Despite the physical play of the Red Dragons, they were unable to pull out a W and suffered their first season-opening loss in 3 years. The Red Dragons continue their run for nationals with their home opener coming up on 10/25 vs. Binghamton @ 3:30pm at Alumni Arena. All are welcome to come out to root on their Red Dragons and admission is FREE!

Attention all male students,  

The Men’s Ice Hockey club will be holding an organizational meeting on Thursday, September 3 at 7:30pm by Poolside in Park Center. Please bring something to write with, as well as your health insurance cards or other proof of medical insurance with policy numbers, group numbers, etc. Proof of medical insurance is mandatory prior to participation with any sport club.

If you are interested, but cannot attend the meeting, please contact Kyle Smith at cortlandclubhockey@yahoo.com

Sport club meeting dates will be posted once they are confirmed. For more information about all of the sport clubs, including organizational meetings for other clubs, please go to the SUNY Cortland Sport Club website: blog.cortland.edu/sportclubs

February 27-28, 2009
Somerset, NJ

The SUNY Cortland ice hockey club fell just short in their attempt to reach and win the NECHL championship this past weekend in New Jersey. After finishing 5-2 in their final 7 games, a hot Cortland club skated into the Protec Ponds Ice Arena, home of the Rutgers University club team, for a weekend of playoff action. Cortland entered the tournament ranked 4th in the six-team field.

On Friday night, the Red Dragons met up with defending champion and #5 seed Oswego. Goaltender Nathan Mellow made 30 saves in net and Mike Cerasoli scored twice and added an assist on the way to a 5-2 win over the Lakers. Zach Haluszczak, Neal Purcell, and Greg Huether also added goals for Cortland. With the win, the club advanced to the NECHL semifinals for the second time in as many years, where they met #1 seed Penn State Berks.

In two previous regular season games against PSB, Cortland was 0-2-0 and was outscored 13-3. On Saturday, the Red Dragons would prove to be a different team and would push Penn State Berks to the edge of elimination. After a first period that saw no goals, Penn State Berks would score 3 in the second to take a 3-2 lead into the final frame. Cortland rallied in the third to tie the score at 4 and send the game into overtime. When an extra session wasn’t enough to decide a winner, the game went to a shootout. Despite an incredible team effort, Cortland’s season would come to an end as Penn State Berks won the shootout to advance to the championship game. Mike Cerasoli, Kyle Smith, and Zach Haluszczak all scored in the loss. Penn State Berks would go on to lose by a score of 5-3 to Cornell in the championship game to earn the 2008-2009 NECHL crown in their first year in the league.

Cortland finishes the 08-09 campaign with an overall record of 10-11-2 in 23 total games. Congratulations to the SUNY Cortland ice hockey club for an incredible season! Check back next year for 2009-2010 schedule information!