Cards Travel to Morrsiville Saturday

SUNYAC play is in full swing as Plattsburgh heads to Morrisville to face off against the Mustangs. Since there’s only one game this weekend I thought I would go a little more in depth with my pregame and give everyone a little background on the newest SUNYAC team. Having watched Morrisville play for three years, I have a little more incite on Morrisville than most other SUNYAC teams.

The Morrisville State Mustangs began their ice hockey team in the fall of 1997, and by 2000 were a dominant program. Since the 2000 season Morrisville has won 4 National Junior College Athletic Association championships (2002, 2004, 2005, and 2006). The Mustangs have also won their conference and region five out of the past six years (2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005). In 2007 Morrisville made their switch from NJCAA to NCAA and the ranks of Division III. The Mustangs will finally be eligible for the SUNYAC playoffs next season, and personally I expect the Mustangs to make the playoffs within the next few years. I think that they will compete with, and beat, the likes of Brockport, Cortland, Geneseo and others.

So far this year the Mustangs have played better than what most expected them to. Morrisville opened the season with an exhibition win over the GMHL All Stars before falling to Elmira, Manhattanville, Geneseo and Brockport. The only real blowout loss for the Mustangs was against the Soaring Eagles of Elmira.

So far this season the Mustangs have seen sophomore goalie Caylin Relkoff in net 3 times and he seems to be the go to guy for Morrisville. Relkoff comes into this weekends game with a save percentage of .893, a goals against average of 4.27 and a record of 0-3-0. In his career Relkoff has a save percentage of .885, goals against average of 4.30 and a record of 4-12-0. In front of Relkoff the team is lead by sophomore forward Rob Sgarbossa (1-3-4) who has one short handed goal and a career point total of 26 in two years (13-13-26). Leading the defense so far this year is freshman Tom Longland with two points (1-1-2).

Special teams haven’t been so special for the Mustangs so far this season. They are just 5/25 on the power play for a 20 percent success rate, and 26/33 on the penalty kill for a 78.8 percent kill rate. The penalty kill numbers really don’t look to bad, however the more successful teams are usually around the 90 percent kill rate. In their four games that count toward their record, Morrisville has allowed 1-2 power play goals per game.

Ok, that’s enough about Morrisville. This Saturday night Plattsburgh looks to remain perfect in the SUNYAC and overall. After opening the season with three straight home wins our Cardinals now take to the road, hopefully on that shiny new bus that has the schools name and logo plastered on the side of it. The Cards will spend the rest of the month of November on the road starting this weekend, in Morrisville.

Leading the way for the Cardinals are senior defenseman Nick Rolls (1-6-7) who has seven points already this season upping his career total to 85; sophomore forward Dylan Clarke (3-3-6) who in just over a season has 44 points already; and senior forward Joey Wilson (2-2-4) who now has 57 career points. All three players have one power play goal this year. Also scoring power play goals this year for the Cardinals are; Phil Farrow, Riley Hill, Ryan Corry and Dan Sliasis. Eric Satim, Ryan Corry and Shawn Dennis have game winning goals for Plattsburgh.

Backstopping the Cardinals between the pipes has been sophomore Bryan Hince, who is a perfect 3-0-0 this season with a .912 save percentage and goals against average of 2.33. In his career Hincey has a save percentage of .915, goals against average of 2.09 and a career record of 25-5-0. Hince has shown in a little more than a season on the ice in Plattsburgh that he is one of the best goalies in all of Division III.

Plattsburgh’s special teams started out dismal, going just 2/7 against Elmira to open the season. Last weekend the Cards went a combined 5/16, however I don’t think that all the power plays were full length. The power play units have gone a combined 7/23 on the season for a 30.4 success rate; the penalty kill unit is 16/21 for a 76.2 percent kill rate. The Cards know that they have to tighten up on the penalty kill as Coach Emery would like to see a kill rate around 90 percent or so.

This weekend’s game is a big one, as is any SUNYAC game. Morrisville has played teams tighter so far this year than anyone would have thought. I do expect the Mustangs to win a few SUNYAC games this year however, this one won’t be one of them. Plattsburgh’s team speed and talent will prevail on Saturday night. Some people online are predicting huge blowouts for the Cardinals as I’ve seen scores of 8-2, 10-2, and 11-1. I’m not sure that we will see that much of a blowout, but we might. I’m going to guess something like a 6-2 victory for Plattsburgh. For those of us not making the trip to Morrisville, make sure to tune into wiry for Ducky’s broadcast of the game, as usual the pregame show will be on around 6:25pm.

Until next weekend,
Jim