By Warren Kozireski —

Buffalos State senior forward Zach Remers left home at 16 years of age to pursue his dream of playing hockey. After four seasons at various levels with the Wilkes Barre-Scranton junior program, he returned home to play for the Bengals.

Fast forward four more years and he is in his final year playing college hockey. But it has all gone as most would hope.

He has stood among the top-six scorers on the team in each of his first three campaigns and this year entered Thanksgiving weekend atop the scoring chart and tied for seventh nationally with six goals over the first six games. That also put him second in goals in the SUNYAC conference.

And he has been consistent with at least one goal in four of those six games.

“Zach is a senior, he wants to play pro hockey and he knows where he’s at,” Buffalo State head coach Steve Murphy said. “We’re trying to put him in positions to succeed and obviously it’s up to him, but he’s off to a good start this year.

“He’s an undercover skater, he’s quick and has learned a lot. I’ve been real hard on him for four years because you see potential in guys and he’s had to learn to roll with that a bit. He knows what we expect of him now and he’s just taken off.”

Remers was recently switched and was playing on a line with Estonia natives junior Vadim Vasjonkin and freshman Nikita Kozyrev and the unit has found chemistry. With 67 career points heading into the Skidmore Tournament, Remers was just six points away from joining the top-12 scorers in program history.

“They are so easy to play with, makes the game so simple and it’s a lot of fun,” Remers said about his new line-mates. “It really rallies up the bench and stuff and gets everyone going, so it’s been good so far.

“Things are clicking and you just keep driving the net and playing with those guys makes it so easy; just do the simple things and sometimes it works out in your favor.”

Remers had 67 points over his first 79 collegiate contests and is more than aware that this is his last trip around the SUNYAC.

“When you play at places you kind of reminisce about the four years. It’s bittersweet…and I’m definitely going to miss it after this year, but I’m just trying to enjoy it as it goes along.

“I’d love to play after this (pro); I’m just trying to get through this year and not try to think about it too much, play my game and at the end of the season, we’ll see what opportunities present themselves.

“It would be a dream for me to play professional hockey—it’s been quite the journey as my family would tell you.”

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Freshman forward Noah Bradley (Lancaster, Pa./Philadelphia Revolution (EHL)) of the Manhattanville College men’s ice hockey team was selected as the United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) Rookie of the Week, the conference announced.

Bradley played an essential role in the Valiants come-from-behind victory over Connecticut College on Saturday evening, Nov. 30, as Manhattanville defeated the Camels at home at Playland Ice Casino in Rye, N.Y., by a score of 3-2. The Crimson and White scored all three of those goals with less than 12:00 remaining in the third period. Bradley assisted on the first Valiant goal 8:08 into the third, and scored the first of his collegiate career to tie it at 2-2 at 14:33 into the period.

This is the first honor of Bradley’s career. He and the rest of the Valiants return to action this weekend for a pair of UCHC matchups in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., at Wilkes University (12/6) and King’s College (12/7).

By Melissa Burgess, GoGriffs.com contributor —

The Griffs will pay tribute to the college’s sesquicentennial, as well as the rich history of the Canisius hockey program, with new retro-inspired jerseys, to be worn at select games this season.

The jerseys, which feature components that mimic pieces of historic Griffs uniforms, were designed by a team of Canisius hockey-aligned community members, including head coach Trevor Large and the Barnett family (Tom, ’79), who also helped design last year’s third jersey.

“Tapping into their creativity was very helpful,” Large said. “They’re alums, they’re friends of the program. They have lots more ideas planned, and this just happened to be the one that we chose this year.”

“We took that [the sesquicentennial] as inspiration, and tried to collect ideas from everything that Canisius hockey has worn,” Large said. “We have a strong history and tradition here, and we tried to showcase that in as many areas as we could.”

The jersey’s design features a primarily “vintage white” coloring; the crest incorporates the arched “Canisius” wordmark, which has appeared on Griffs’ hockey and other athletic jerseys in years past. The retro Griffin logo – carrying a hockey stick – which was worn by the first Canisius varsity hockey team, also appears on the front along with the Atlantic Hockey patch.

Canisius’ sesquicentennial logo adorns the right sleeve of the jersey, while player numbers are printed in a similarly-styled badge on the left sleeve.

Striping along the shoulders of the jersey and on the socks mimic the original socks worn by Canisius’ first-ever hockey team from the 1950s. Brown pant shells, meant to mimic leather pants worn by teams in the college’s history, feature a bright blue and gold Griffin logo in another homage to the team’s history, rounding out this vintage-inspired style.

“We wanted to have an homage to everything that we’ve worn before,” Large said. “We looked for inspiration from lots of different jerseys, and lots of symbols that we’ve used in the past.”

“I’m really proud of what was put together,” he added. “It’s something that’s fun in the game of hockey. We get to do these things, and it’s a little extra-good feeling as we get into a rivalry.”

The Griffs will debut their new threads on Friday night as they kick off a weekend “Battle of the Bridge” series at home against the Niagara Purple Eagles (7:35 p.m. Friday; 4:05 p.m. Saturday).

A big rivalry game provides the perfect backdrop to introduce the new uniforms, but after this weekend, Griffs fans will have plenty of other chances to see the team in action in the new threads over the course of the season.

“These jerseys will be seen a lot as we get into the next month or so, in terms of the home games on our schedule,” Large said. “The next few months, I’d assume we’re wearing them … not every weekend, but close to it.”

For fans and alumni who are hoping to get a jersey of their own: stay tuned.

“We’re working on it,” Large said. “The plan is to do a re-order. With enough buzz, anything’s possible.”

Select Griffs’ game-worn jerseys will also be auctioned off later in the season (likely in February), giving fans a unique opportunity to own a piece of Canisius hockey history while supporting the program.

“This one is special,” Large said. “So, I know the lucky few that will get one, hopefully it’s the lucky many, will wear them with pride when they’re at the LECOM Harborcenter and elsewhere.”

And although this season is still in its infancy, the Griffs crew is already nearly finished designing next season’s third jersey, with Large and company picking out colors and finalizing the details.

“We’re trying to push the limits on what jerseys look like,” Large said. “It’s fun for the guys, it’s fun for everybody that’s worn a Canisius jersey before.”

“Something we want to do moving forward is to keep having an influx of new, fresh, clean, modern jerseys,” he added. “We’re trying to play on our history and tradition as well as what’s new for the program, and how we can move forward together.”

By Warren Kozireski —

Division III Geneseo has won the last two SUNYAC titles and advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals and semi-finals over the past two seasons led largely by a group of defensemen who transferred in from Division I programs.

After the departure of three of those blueliners, Rochester area products Teddy McCabe (Webster) and Chris Perna (Pittsford) have stepped into regular roles and helped the second ranked nationally Knights try to three-peat as SUNYAC champs with a 3-0-1 start.

McCabe, a senior, has waited for this opportunity. He saw action in only four games as a freshman after arriving from the Cumberland Grads of the CCHL in Ontario, seven as a sophomore and 11 last season as a junior. He earlier played for the Jr. Sabres (2013-14) after winning a Section V high school hockey championship with Webster-Thomas as a junior in 2012-13.

“He’s got a lot of, I guess the word would be stick-with-it-ness,” Geneseo head coach Chris Schultz said. “He could have packed it in two years ago, but he’s smart enough to know that if he’s patient and does put his work in that he’s going to be in a situation like he is now. He understood that the players playing in front of him were a couple of All-Americans, but it’s a testament to his character and his long-term view of the situation.”

The 6’2” 190 lb. McCabe netted his first collegiate goal Feb. 2, 2018 and already had two assists over the first four games this season.

His younger brother, Craig, is a freshman defenseman for the Fredonia Blue Devils this season and picked up his first collegiate point with an assist in his first game against Morrisville. Sister Molly is also a freshman on defense this fall with SUNY Cortland.

“Sometimes it doesn’t always go to plan, but we had some of the best defensemen in the league here over the last couple of years and it almost makes it a little sweeter trying to get my time senior year,” McCabe said.

Perna, sophomore, benefitted last season from an NCAA rule change allowing team to dress an extra player and he played in 27 contests; many as the seventh defenseman. He scored four goals with eight assists as a freshman and already has registered five points in four games this season including three goals with two coming on the power play.

“He really surprised us last year,” Schultz said. “We knew he’d come in and be a good player for us, but we didn’t know he would be able to come in and make as much of an impact as he did. And now…we had to fill two spots on that power play unit that put up a lot of points (last year) and they are doing a bang-up job.”

“Last year I was just lucky to be in the line-up,” Perna said. “Coming in I didn’t expect to play, but luckily the NCAA made a rule that you could dress an extra player so I was fortunate to benefit from that.

“I’m just fortunate to be playing on the power play with (Webster-Schroeder’s Conlan) Keenan and (Andrew) Romo (Romano) and some of the best guys in the country obviously makes it super-easy. Definitely not taking it for granted.

“Last year at my exit meeting Coach Schultz and some of the captains told me I was going to have a bigger role, so I just tried to work out this summer as much as I could and get ready for the year. I think it’s going well so far.”

The 6’0”, 190 lb. right shot played two seasons for the Panthers in Pittsford where he was the team Rookie of the Year before one season of junior hockey each with the Jr. Amerks, Jr. Sabres, CCHL split between Hawkesbury and Cumberland and the Rochester Monarchs.

Both had their sights on playing in Geneseo for quite a while.

“I was fortunate to be able to live at home and play in front of my parents all the time,” Perna said. That’s the main reason I came here; it’s great hockey, it’s close to home and my parents love coming to every game.”

“Unlike a lot of the guys around here, I’m from Rochester so I knew about the success and about the school growing up and I kind of made it a goal,” McCabe said about his decision to play for the Knights. “There were some bumpy roads hockey-wise around 17-18 years old, but I stayed true to myself and found a way to get here.

“You grind it out, take what you can get, keep working hard and eventually it works out.”

ITHACA, N.Y. – One of the most compelling things about sports – especially the particular brand of parity that college hockey boasts – is how sometimes an excellent team effort results in a loss or how a sub-par showing ends up a victory. Year after year, teams that manage to be the most consistent seem to be the ones who win the most hardware. But championship teams also seem to have a knack for managing a way to salvage victories in games when they haven’t been at their best.
 
Off to the program’s best start in 48 years, the 8-0 Cornell men’s hockey team has certainly looked the part of a contender for both ECACHockey and national titles. Scoring depth has become an obvious storyline for the Big Red, which now has 13 goal-scorers in its first eight games. Last weekend, the team managed to overcome slow starts in both of its game to record victories over Quinnipiac, 2-1, and Princeton, 5-1.
 
The win over the Bobcats was particularly noteworthy, because it was just the second one-goal game of the season for the Big Red. Cornell isn’t just winning games, it’s winning most of them fairly handily. Five of the eight have come by three goals or more (and none of those have been inflated by empty-net tallies).
 
While it’s true that margin of victory doesn’t amount to bonus points, it is indicative of a positive trend for Cornell this year. Too often in recent seasons has the Big Red gained a lead only to fade as the final buzzer neared. There’s a common misperception that Mike Schafer ’86, Jay R. Bloom ’77 Head Coach of Men’s Hockey at Cornell, wants his team to go into a shell when it has a late lead. It’s actually the last thing he wants. The goal is to continue proficiency in the areas that make the team so good in the first place – puck possession and a stifling forecheck.
 
This year’s squad has excelled at that. The result has been some of the aforementioned comfortable victories.
 
“It just seems like once we get one, we can taste blood. We just kind of keep pressing and keep pressing, and it just ends up breaking teams’ will,” said senior forward Jeff Malott, one of the Big Red’s tri-captains. “We haven’t had crazy good starts (to games). We haven’t made a living off of breaking their will right away. It just seems like when we play our game, teams have a hard time maintaining pressure for more than the first period. Because we’re so deep and we’re so tenacious and detail-oriented, over a matter of three periods it’s hard for a team to compete with that.”
 
Added Schafer: “I think they’re hungry. They have a little more of a killer instinct than some teams I’ve had in the past. They see that opportunity to go (up) 1-0, 2-0 and then get to that third goal, which is always critical.”
 
What makes the third goal critical is the frequency in which it leads to a victory. Exhibit ‘A’: Cornell has yet to yield more than two goals in any of its eight games to date. Looking further back, the Big Red has only lost five games in which its scored at least three goals over the past six seasons (once each of the last three years; twice in 2015-16; none in 2013-14 or 2014-15).
 
Perhaps a statistical byproduct of the Big Red’s ability to pour it on once it has a lead, Cornell has been particularly dominant in second periods this year. The Big Red has scored 20 of its 36 goals to date in the middle frame. That’s an average of 2.50 goals per second period, by far highest in the nation in any period (Harvard comes in a 2.0 in the first and third periods; Boston University ranks second in second periods at 1.77).
 
“I’ve never noticed (that), to be honest,” junior forward Tristan Mullin said after the Big Red put up a four-spot in the second period on Saturday to pull away from Princeton. “I think (it’s) just being able to come back in after a period and adjust to what the other team is doing and kind of working the small things that we weren’t doing in the first period. It’s just bearing down on it.”

Around The League

•  ICYMI, freshman forward Ben Berard was named the ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week on Monday. It was the third time in the four weeks of the Big Red’s season that it laid claim to the award. Junior goaltender Matthew Galajda was a very strong candidate for the league’s MAC Goaltending Goalie of the Week, matching eventual winner Frank Marotte, of Clarkson, in stopping 47 of 49 shots in two victories over the weekend. The difference ended up being a slightly better goals against average for Marotte, due to the extra minutes afforded by an overtime game.
 
Still, Galajda’s efforts weren’t overlooked by teammates this weekend. Sophomore forward Michael Regush asked members of the media who they were waiting to speak with after Friday’s win over Quinnipiac, and was told it was Galajda.
 
“I’d want to talk to him, too, after the way he played,” Regush said.

•  Harvard freshman goaltender Mitchell Gibson, who ranks second in the nation in goals against average (1.49) and save percentage (.955), was removed from Friday’s game at Rensselaer due to injury, according to The Crimson.
 
“It looked like [Gibson] tweaked something,” head coach Ted Donato told The Crimson. “I don’t think it’s of the major variety, but … agility and flexibility is such a key factor. He wasn’t able to play at the same level, and we were able to get him out of there.”

Alumni Update

•  Matt Moulson ’06 may not be in the NHL anymore, but his presence still exists with the new wave of stars – specifically former Buffalo Sabresteammate Jack Eichel. Now the captain of the Sabres, Eichel had a particularly rough outing last Thursday against Carolina, then got some words of wisdom via text from his former teammate.
 
“Matt Moulson was all over me to start shooting the puck,” Eichel told The Buffalo News. “So I figured I’d start shooting a little more.”
 
It certainly worked. Eichel scored four goals in the Sabres’ 4-2 win over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.
 
Meanwhile, Moulson continues to play on an AHL contract with the Hershey Bears. He ranked second on the team in scoring with 12 points on five goals and seven assists through 20 games.
 
•  Dwyer Tschantz ’18 is back in the ECHL with the Maine Mariners, with whom he posted 16 points in 50 games last season. The Mariners picked up Tschantz on loan after he started the year with three points in five games with the SPHL’s Knoxville Ice Bears – where he was a teammate of classmate Hayden Stewart ’18.

Polls Prose

•  The Big Red remained second in both the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine national polls this week, staying behind Minnesota State – which swept its home series over the weekend against Alaska Anchorage. North Dakota continued its move up, ascending to third after a home sweep of St. Cloud State.
 
One thing of note is just how close Cornell is the #1 spot in the USA poll. The Big Red pulled even with the Mavericks at 17 first-place votes apiece and trailed by just three voting points.
 
•  The biggest thing that has hampered Cornell in the Pairwise Comparison Ratings over the last couple years has been a lack of wins against other teams toward the top of the rankings. These types of victories result in a Quality Win Bonus (QWB), which is a bump in points in the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) – which is essentially the mathematical backbone of the Pairwise.
 
While still early, the Big Red is not only doing fine with the QWB. It’s among the nation’s leaders at .0116, which trails just Minnesota State’s .0118. Cornell is 3-0 against other teams in the top 20 of the RPI, which includes road victories against Clarkson (#8, Nov. 15) and Michigan State (#12, Nov. 1 and Nov. 2). The Spartans once again got another boost last weekend with a victory and a tie at home against Notre Dame (#5).

Off The Crossbar is a weekly-ish notebook about the Cornell men’s hockey team written by assistant director of athletic communications Brandon Thomas, who is in his ninth season as his office’s primary contact for the team following a stint as the team’s beat writer at The Ithaca Journal. He can be reached at brandon@cornell.edu.