Last year was a successful one for first-year coach Brian Hills. His Geneseo Ice Knights worked out early-season kinks, then went 11-7-2 for the rest of the year, finished tied for third, defeated Potsdam in the first round in a thrilling mini-game, and stretched Plattsburgh to a mini-game before losing.<\/p>\n
With that sort of momentum, 2002-03 should be a breakout season, right? Well, not exactly.<\/p>\n
The problem is, Geneseo lost ten players, mostly forwards, including their top three scorers. Many will be hard to replace.<\/p>\n
Hills plans on sticking to the basics. “We’ll get there by working hard, playing solid defense, and with strong goaltending. Take it one step at a time.”<\/p>\n
With Niklas Sundberg gone from Plattsburgh, sophomore Brett Walker may be the one to assume the throne of top goaltender in SUNYAC. There was a lot of talk amongst fans over the well-publicized incidents concerning Walker and his tendency to slug it out with anyone charging the net.<\/p>\n
That is all in the past, according to Hills. “It was a learning process. There was no problem after the first two incidents. He’s a smart kid, and one of the team leaders. He understands what it is all about now.”<\/p>\n
That understanding led Walker to be named SUNYAC Co-Rookie of the Year while posting a 3.19 GAA and .906 save percentage. If Walker performs, Geneseo can beat anybody at anytime.<\/p>\n
He will have familiar help as the four top defensemen return: captain Paul Weismann who transferred in from Bowling Green last year, Jon Schnepf, Andy Ford, and Ryan Collins.<\/p>\n
Despite all the forwards who graduated, Hills is confident of his incoming class, “We’ve improved over last year.”<\/p>\n
For starters, Geneseo grabbed another Division I transfer, Jay Kuczmanski, from Cornell. Two freshmen to keep an eye on will be Kris Heeres and Michael Bond.<\/p>\n
The Ice Knights do have some solid scorers returning such as assistant captain Andy Rice, Jon Campbell, Brian Avery, and Derek Powell.<\/p>\n
Besides the conference schedule, Geneseo faces off against the entire ECAC West, sometimes twice for some teams, as well as a matchup with Lebanon Valley.<\/p>\n
In all, Geneseo’s season is a tossup. It could go either way. If Hills can replace the scoring power he lost and Walker continues to live up to his billing, then the Ice Knights will be a team to be reckoned with. If not, then they could once again find themselves struggling for a playoff spot.<\/p>\n
Either way, the team is ready. “We’re looking forward to this season,” Hills said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lost A Lot Last year was a successful one for first-year coach Brian Hills. His Geneseo Ice Knights worked out early-season kinks, then went 11-7-2 for the rest of the year, finished tied for third, defeated Potsdam in the first round in a thrilling mini-game, and stretched Plattsburgh to a mini-game before losing. With that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[322],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n