After suffering their first loss of the season last weekend to a familiar antagonist in Elmira, the Geneseo Knights rebounded in a big way with a decisive win over Fredonia and now face their final twelve games of the season in their new UCHC affiliation looking for a conference title and more.
“Candidly, I was a bit surprised by our start,” stated head coach Chris Schultz. “We don’t load up a single line and have a pretty balanced top three groups in the lineup. Our goaltending has been really good with both Adam [Harris] and Jacob [Torgner] right around the .940 save percentage level. That kind of consistency will keep you in a lot of hockey games and definitely helps out on the penalty kill. Knowing if they can consistently keep at that level of play means I am still not sure how good we are or can be.”
Following their closing of the first half with a win and overtime tie with Utica, the Knights were off for a month before returning to game action last weekend for the first time in 2025. A Friday night loss at Elmira got the rust off before the offense broke out in a big way against Fredonia with eight different players scoring goals in a 9-2 rout of the Blue Devils.
“The break was like thirty-two days,” said Schultz. “Then we cam back to literally play our “kryptonite” in Elmira who we do not have a very successful history against. Next year they come into our league so maybe having the incentive of points to the winner may be a different motivator for our team but putting that one aside I liked how we rebounded the next night and got back to our game.”
The Knights do not have a 10-gaol scorer and only one player (Cooper Fensterstock) has double-digit assists on the roster. The balance goes up and down the lineup and largely with even-strength goals as the usually deadly power play is clicking only at 16% so far this season.
“We have become a very gritty team,” noted Schultz. “In the past we would send some flyers for the perfect play or individual zone entry where now the group is much more a “chip and chase” approach. We made this change a couple of seasons ago and have had good success with the players buying into the style. If we can get the power play going our fifth-ranked offense should only get better and we will need that to close out the regular season and heading to the playoffs in March.”
One of the players looking to breakout on the man-advantage unit is defenseman Dakota Zarudny. The junior has eight points on the season with a +10 rating and has the high reward skills his coach is looking to take advantage of in the attack.
“Dak grew up playing forward,” said Schultz. “I am not sure when he made the shift back to the blueline, but I have always recruited and liked the smaller, skilled defensive players especially that play that high risk-high/reward style of play. He is a great influence on the team and in the room because he is always yapping and having fun. I can call him out in front of the group, and he just laughs and gets energized by it all.
The Knights will be looking for their first UCHC title this season but have a difficult path forward including four games with Nazareth and two each with Chatham, Brockport, Manhattanville and Utica to close out the second half of the season. Nazareth bookends the remaining schedule starting with a home-and-home series this weekend that Coach Schultz wants to see his team ready to go.
“Any team coach by George Roll is going to be ready to play and very disciplined and true to their systems,” said Schultz. “They have been playing very well of late including wins over Hamilton and Cortland before a tough loss to Oswego. We need to keep our gritty style going and make some improvements in getting more pucks to the net and not looking for the perfect play particularly on the power play. It is going to be a tough road to the finish line playing some really strong teams and I hope we find out how very good we are before we have to play in March.”
The Knights travel to face Nazareth on Friday night before taking the ice at “The Ira” on Saturday in the back end of the two-game series against the Golden Flyers.
