There are some traditions in the world of ice hockey that every player takes pride in. The hand shake line at the end of a hard fought game or series, raising a championship trophy (as the Eagles did last spring in the inaugural East Florida Collegiate Hockey Conference tournament), drinking out of that trophy (granted that it is a cup, which all great trophies are, i.e. the Stanley Cup), and raising a championship banner. The Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University ice hockey team has taken part of all of these, except the banner raising, but that would change Friday night. With the campus acapella group on the ice, the Acafellas, to sing the school’s alma mater, along with the Army ROTC holding the nation’s flag, the banner was raised, and the feeling of accomplishment and pride from last year’s championship team was as strong as ever. The ice hockey team have been looking to get school recognition, and winning their conference with such fanfare was a key step. The 2016-2017 Eagles have cemented themselves in history, but that’s the keyword: History. It is important for a team to not dwell on past success, and to be constantly working towards higher goals.

The goal, would be repeating last year’s success, and to start a brand. This brand being that the Embry-Riddle Eagles are a consistent contender in the ACHA. Last season’s championship winning team started the season 5-1, and this season’s team is starting 4-2. Similar starts, but this year’s Eagles are not the same as last year’s. The Eagles have a lot of freshmen in their lineup this season, and many of them are making significant contributions (more on that later). Freshmen such as Spencer Kuhlman, Turner Kauffman, and Ryan Marks jumped into starting roles in the lineup. Others such as Richard Means, Matt Sillcocks, and Kyle Usiak gave the team depth. This allows their lines to not so much be a first line, second line, third line system, but more a 1A, 1B, 1C line system. The young guns on the team would be looking to make their own history. For the 2017-2018 Eagles, that would mean another conference championship, and a national rank in the ACHA.

The ACHA, American Collegiate Hockey Association, ranks teams nationally much as the NCAA does for their sports, such as the top 25 in football or basketball. At the end of last season, Embry-Riddle was ranked, but not high enough for the national tournament. This team hopes to be ranked the same nationally, if not higher, than the end of last year’s. So how do you get ranked? Two factors play into the ranking, and for those familiar with the aforementioned NCAA top 25 rankings, the factors are the same. The first is winning. Winning games, no matter the sport, will put you at the top. The second factor, is the quality of games played. This category is one the Eagles always take advantage of. The Eagles play quality out of conference games such as University of Tampa, Auburn University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Clemson, and Florida State, to name a few. On Friday night, one of these powerhouse teams would be coming to Daytona to witness the pregame festivities and play the Eagles, and that team would be the Florida State Seminoles.

As always, let’s look at the tale of the tape and some significant digits. The Eagles come into the game with a record of 4-2, their losses coming to University of Tampa and Auburn. The Seminoles come into the game with a record of 1-1, their loss came to Georgia Tech in overtime. Hard to match the team by record due to the Eagles playing four more games than the Seminoles so far this season. Let’s look at goals scored and allowed for each team to get a better idea of the matchup. The significant digit to focus on this game is 3. The Eagles have scored, on average, 6 goals a game, while they have allowed 3 goals a game. The Seminoles have scored, on average, 4 goals a game, and allowed 3 goals a game. Both teams allow 3 goals a game, but if Riddle can hold the Seminoles to 3 goals, they score on average double that number and, in theory, should come out on top.

After the festivities, the game began. The first period showed that these two teams were equal and fans were in for a good one. The teams went back and forth for the first ten minutes of the game, until the Seminoles broke through the defense to make it 1-0. The lead was short lived though, and would start a trend that would continue the entire game, no lead was safe. One minute later, the Eagles tied it up. The goal came from Ryan Marks, with an assist from Nick Conrad, but the goal was a team affair. It started with Marks winning the face-off, he then passed it to Brenden Barger who passed it across to Conrad. Conrad took a shot towards the net, and all the forwards created heavy traffic, screening the Florida State goalie. Marks got a hold of the loose puck in the traffic, and shot it past the goalie’s glove. 1-1 game. Florida State would score with five minutes left in the period to make it a 2-1 game heading into the locker rooms. The shots were fairly even, 8 for the Eagles, and 12 for the Seminoles, with both teams having 6 of those shots coming in grade A scoring areas. 

The Eagles might have been down to start the period, but they came out and controlled the second period. The scoring for the period would belong to the freshmen (as would be the theme for the entire game for the Eagles). Kyle “Mr. Excitement” Usiak, broke the puck out of the Embry-Riddle zone, beat two Seminoles on his way to shooting a top right corner wrist shot to make it 2-2. The Seminoles would score with fifteen minutes left in the period, but that was all they would muster for the rest of the second period. The freshmen showed their skills on the next goal as well, as Spencer Kuhlman made a pass to a streaking Ryan Marks at center ice, who dropped the puck for Turner Kauffman, who snuck the puck through the goalie’s pads, on the ice, for a goal. The goalie would want this one back as he was in good position, and had his pads down, but sometimes you just have to put the puck on the net, and this time it resulted in a goal. It was tied up at 3. Remember the significant digit for this game was 3, and both teams usually only allow 3 goals a game. After only two periods, both teams allowed 3 goals, and with a whole period yet to play, one team would have to let at least one more in. Shots proved to be equal this period as well, with both teams having 11 shots, and both teams having half of their shots come in grade A scoring areas.

The third period started with a Florida State goal early in the period making the game 4-3. They wouldn’t lose the lead for the rest of the game. Minutes later, they scored again making it 5-3. The Eagles kept fighting though, as there was still ten minutes left on the clock. Mike Pandolfo took the puck behind the Eagles’ net, and found Glenn Corey on a breakout pass. Corey passed it across ice to Spencer Kuhlman, who was skating down the opposite side boards through the neutral zone. Kuhlman took it into the attacking zone, beat his defender, and shot the puck top right corner over the goalie’s glove for the goal. 5-4 Seminoles with eight minutes to play. The Eagles pushed, to no avail, and with one minute and twenty seconds left on the clock, pulled their goaltender. They would amount a brief attack, but the Seminoles would add an empty-netter, finishing the game at a score of 6-4. Shots ended up equal again in the third, with Riddle having 8 shots, with 3 in grade A scoring areas, and Florida State having 9 shots, with 6 in grade A scoring areas.

Both goalies had good performances for the Eagles. Nico Prulhiere started the game in net, and stopped 17 of 20 shots. Midway through the second period Max Minervini relieved Prulhiere, and he put up a fine performance as well stopping 9 of 12 shots. 

The 6-4 loss might seem like a disappoint, but let’s look at it in context. First, last season the Eagles played Florida State twice. The first game ended 10-0, and the second 11-0, both in favor of Florida State. This shows the Eagles have vastly improved, and played side by side with a team that blew out the Eagles last season. Second, we talked earlier about quality of games and how that can help with end of season rankings. Playing a big school like Florida State, coming up close to an upset, and hanging with them the whole game puts Embry-Riddle at an okay position in the loss, as it’s against a quality opponent. Lastly, the crowd was electric and packed the Daytona Ice Arena, and has done so every game consistently this season. The ice hockey team is a club sport, but the fans treat it like a school-sanctioned sport, and give the Eagles a home-ice advantage every week, which helped them in this game.

Let’s end this week by examining a statement I made earlier in this article. I mentioned that the team has a lot of freshmen who are making immediate impacts on the ice, and I think Friday night’s game supports that statement. All the goals on Friday night were scored by freshmen. On top of that, the second goalie in the game for the Eagles was a freshman. Lastly two defensemen, Chris Barton and Ryan Knapp, are two freshmen getting consistent minutes and playing on the specialty power-play and penalty kill lines. College sports aren’t like professional sports. There are no contracts to keep players around, and with graduations, transfers, and class scheduling issues it’s hard to be a consistently competitive team due to roster spots changing, but the freshmen have added a new layer to an already championship caliber program. A program that saw their accomplishments culminate with the raising of the banner prior to the game. I’m sure the freshmen are itching at a chance to win a championship of their own, and I’m sure they will get their chance soon enough.

Watch the game here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVL3psrnRhA&t=2435s