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October 20, 2007

Cardinals look young again

Plattsburgh State men open hockey season tonight at home with Morrisville

By JOHN CORYER

PLATTSBURGH -- Freshmen played a major role on the Plattsburgh State men's hockey team last season.

Expect more of the same in 2007-08.

"We're going to rely heavily on our freshmen again," said Cardinals head coach Bob Emery, entering his 19th season. "Especially when we don't have a lot of leadership returning with only three seniors on the roster.

"But certain players have to step up early in the season until our younger players reach maturity. We're hoping the freshmen become even a bigger part of the team during the second semester."

The Cardinals open their season tonight at home against SUNY Morrisville.

Last year's Plattsburgh State team, which finished 14-8-6 overall and 6-4-4 in the State University of New York Athletic Conference, did not achieve its goals.

It wasn't from a lack of trying, however, as the Cardinals made a late-season run before dropping a 6-4 contest to Fredonia in the SUNYAC Tournament championship game at the Stafford Ice Arena.

"It's my job as a coach to win championships," Emery said. "We've been spoiled over the years, but we always have a goal of winning the conference championship. It's no different this year. The league is getting stronger all the time and we haven't won it in a while. Oswego, which lost in the SUNYAC Tournament last year, ended up winning the (Division III) national championship.

"But, I love everything about last year's team. The players came to work every game and we haven't had a team that did that in a while. We proved we could play with and beat the best teams in the country (in Division III).

"We came on the second half of the season. Our timing just wasn't always the best, however."

There are changes to this year's roster -- some expected and some not so expected.

Pier-Luc Belanger, a freshman last year who led the team in scoring (16-19-35), entered police academy and did not return this season. Kevin Galan, a sophomore who was third on the team in scoring (13-17-30), and defenseman Casey Smith (6-12-18), also a sophomore a year ago, have transferred to SUNYAC rival Geneseo for their junior campaigns.

Also gone are Ryan Busby, second on the team in scoring (14-21-35), Shane Remenda and Rick Janco.

The leading point producer returning is junior Riley Hill, who was fourth on the team (11-16-27) a year ago.

Plattsburgh State does have 10 of its 15 leading scorers from 2006-07 back.

Emery will deal with what he has and likes what he sees.

"Our freshmen last year showed major improvement as the season went on and we expect them to continue to improve," he said.

"Those include forwards Joey Wilson (12-4-16), Andrew Willock (2-13-15) and Phil Farrow (4-8-12), along with defensemen Ward Smith (1-11-12) and Tom Breslin (1-13-14).

"But, the key for us is how well our juniors play. We need juniors like Shawn Dennis (8-12-20) and Mike Thomson (9-12-21) to produce right from the get-go."

Other forwards returning include seniors C.J. Tozzo (2-8-10), T.J. Cooper (7-2-9) and Mike Baccaro (0-2-2), and sophomore Jason Gorrie (1-1-2). Tozzo, Cooper and Baccaro represent the lone seniors on the team.

Smith, Breslin, junior Nick Rolls (3-20-23), sophomore Eric Greene (2-2-4) and junior Ryan Burke (0-1-1) give the Cardinals experience on the backline.

"I expect us to be strong on defense," Emery said. "The key for us is will we be able to get points up front."

Plattsburgh State returns junior Chris Molinaro and sophomore Dennis Harrsch in goal. Freshman newcomers Simon LeBlanc (6-1, 162) and Bryan Hince (6-0, 178) will also be in the mix.

"We'll have good competition in goal," Emery said. "I'm beginning to think that goaltending is 80 percent of the game. If the team feels confident in its goalie, the players don't grip the sticks as tight and play with more and more confidence."

The Cardinals have added 10 newcomers in all, including forwards Marc Pilon, Mike Schiavi, Eric Satim, Dan Sliasis, Kyle VanDermale and Dylan Clarke.

"We have some very talented freshmen forwards who put up big numbers on their previous teams," Emery said.

"But, we need to play good team defense early on."

Emery is expecting freshmen defensemen Ryan Corry and Devin Bancroft to be key additions.

"We have some experience on defense and (Nick) Rolls came on for us last year," he said.

"We didn't have that offensive-minded defenseman, however, and Corry gives us that. And, Bancroft is a lot like (Rick) Janco."

Emery is optimistic the Cardinals can achieve their goals in 2007-08.

"The guys returning have come back in great shape we're looking for leadership," he said. "We're also looking to put it all together from the goaltender on out."

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