The Cortland Men’s hockey team came off a huge win against Anna Maria, a small Massachusetts college this Saturday. The score was 7-2.
Their season started way back in October and after a shaky 0-2 start, the Dragons have won their last two against Lebanon Valley and Wilkes.
After going 3-1 in November, the Red Dragons luck ran dry in the 6 to 1 loss to Plattsburgh on the first of December. After the Plattsburgh game, the Red Dragons came back with vengeance going 3-0 in preparation for the Oswego Hockey Classic which took place on December 30th and 31st.
During that tournament, the Red Dragons lost to Stevenson and a 1-1 tie game to the hosts of the classic, SUNY Oswego on New Year’s Eve. To start the New Year, the Red Dragons beat Manhattanville before traveling back to Cortland and losing back-to-back games against Skidmore and King’s college.
The team then traveled to Fredonia where both teams would tie in overtime. Just one day later, the team would travel to Buffalo to face Buffalo State where that game came down to the third period in a 5-4 victory for the Red Dragons. Just last Wednesday, the Red Dragons traveled to Morrisville where the Red Dragons took the lead in the 2nd but after 2 goals for the Mustangs in the 3rd period, the Dragons would fall just short of the victory. Now to get back to last Saturday’s game, The Red Dragons looked to take on Anna Maria with some vengeance coming off the loss just last week.
Cortland started strong with a goal in the first from John Kuhl. They would then score three more goals in the 3rd period courtesy of Sutter Donegan, Colby Seitz, and Devlin O’Kane before Anna Maria’s own Matthew Gilbert scored with the help of Guillaume Coulombe and Derek Raposo. Cortland’s Nate Burke scored three minutes later making the score 5-1. With 15 seconds to go in the 2nd Anna Maria scored their second goal of the game courtesy of Derek Raposo. Five minutes into the start of the 3rd period John Kuhl scored his second goal which was assisted by Nate Berke and Sam Nichols. Cortland scored their seventh goal on a power play from Nick Serio making the final score Cortland seven, Anna Maria two.
The Red Dragons seemed to take advantage of the power plays while Anna Maria kept falling short. With just five games left before the first round of SUNY athletic conference games, Cortland is looking to crawl its way up to the top of the conference standings and take a shot at the number one seed.
This Friday they will face the current number one seed Geneseo who currently has a 16-4 overall record. Cortland traveled to Geneseo back in November and came up just short of winning that game in a 3-2 loss to the Knights. The Red Dragons currently sit behind Plattsburgh, Oswego, and Geneseo. Winning on Friday will definitely improve their chances of winning the conference but, they must also win against Plattsburgh on February 9th and Oswego on the 16th.
All in all, the men’s hockey team shouldn’t think too far ahead just yet and take it one game at a time to finish the year before the SUNYAC Playoffs.