Cortland NY – The Red Dragons will skate into the SUNYAC tournament as the top seed this year after a strong regular season. A conference record of 12-0-2 and a four game win streak down the stretch propelled them to the playoffs on a high note.
Cortland officially secured the top spot in the postseason tournament after a 10-2 victory at Morrisville on Feb. 21. That spot comes with some welcomed privileges for the Red Dragons as they will have home ice advantage throughout the entirety of the SUNYAC tournament as well as a bye into the semi final round.
The first round of play takes place on Feb. 26 with third seed Buffalo state hosting sixth seed Canton and fourth seed Plattsburgh hosting fifth seed Potsdam. The lowest remaining seed will travel to Cortland while the other travels to second seed Oswego for the semi finals on Mar. 1.
The path might be uncertain through the tournament but each team is taking their own approach to the playoffs.
“We prepare for the postseason play the exact same way we do during the regular season,” said Ed Gosek, the head coach for Oswego. “Who we play is out of our control, so we just need to prepare to play and when we get on the ice play hard.”
For Oswego their season saw them finish with a 14-8-3 record and a 9-4-1 mark within SUNYAC play which was good for their second consecutive two seed in the postseason tournament.
The first round of tournament play provides for slightly more clarity in preparation at the cost of rest heading into the tournament as well as during it.
“Having the first round game and knowing the matchup can be looked at as an advantage especially when we think about planning our practices for the week,” said Buffalo State assistant coach Marcus Gloss. “We have faced adversity all season long so having an extra game to play in the postseason does not concern us and we welcome the challenge.”
Buffalo State finished their regular season campaign with a 15-10 record overall and a 9-5 mark in the conference. This year was an improvement over the 2023-24 season which saw the Bengals finish at 9-14-2 and miss out on any playoff berth in the SUNYAC tournament.
“We are obviously very happy with the improvement we had this year and the ability to continue our season into the playoffs,” said Gloss. “We intend to take it one game at a time and enjoy our journey with the goal of bringing home some hardware along the way.”
Every team has their sights set on the SUNYAC championship and all have a spot reserved in the trophy cabinet but none will have a harder route to the finish line than the Kangaroos of Canton.
In their first season within the SUNYAC conference Canton finished with a 9-15-1 record overall and a sub .500 conference record at 6-8. They were able to squeeze their way into the tournament with a pair of late season wins over Fredonia and Morrisville which gave them the final spot in the tournament and ensured that they would play the role of road warriors during the playoffs.
“We may be the lowest seed but that is really just a number to us,” Said Christiano Versich, an assistant coach for Canton. “To be in this situation at all gives us a chance. We played the best when it mattered in the regular season and in a one game playoff we are capable of anything irregardless of where the game is played.”
The Red Dragons will have to wait to find out who their first game is against and when they do the puck will drop in Alumni Arena at 7:00 p.m.