With a new season ahead, Brockport hockey is set to hit the ice, bringing fresh energy and high expectations to a new conference. After a competitive season last year, the Golden Eagles are ready to make their mark, bolstered by a mix of key returners and promising new faces.
“We’re kind of feeling this group is special,” Dickinson said. “There’s just something about this group. They’re much tighter off the ice. They want to be on the ice with each other as much as possible. We didn’t quite have that aspect last year, and I think that kind of, you know, hurt us in the long run.”
Brockport is entering a new year with new faces and is now in a new conference: the United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC). This move came after SUNY Brockport decided to leave the SUNYAC conference for the Empire 8 conference, which doesn’t have hockey.
“I didn’t like it,” Dickinson said. “I didn’t see personally the advantage to leaving…I understood why the school was looking to leave and go to the Empire 8, totally on board, financial decision, less missed class time for student athletes…there’s no Empire 8 hockey. So, the option to stay in the SUNYAC was there…when I kind of sat back and was like ‘alright, you know, let’s look at the true pros and cons of this,’ I was able to kind of shift my focus…I think this league change is going to be really good for us.”
The Golden Eagles will be facing familiar opponents, such as Chatham and Geneseo, in the UCHC while taking on newer ones like Nazareth, Utica and Manhattanville. The rules for scheduling in the UCHC are a little different from the SUNYAC, as Brockport will take on conference opponents in back-to-back days on Fridays and Saturdays.
Brockport’s offense made some noise in the SUNYAC last year, ending with 45 goals, fifth in the league. The Golden Eagles lost some key forwards that were contributors in their offensive success and will have to find replacements. Scott Ramaekers graduated and is now playing for the 2024 FPHL champion Binghamton Black Bears. Andrew Harley also graduated, as well as former captain Connor Galloway, who is now playing for the Nashville Predators’ ECHL affiliate team Atlanta Gladiators. All three players had over 10 points last season, with Galloway leading the team with 19 points (seven + 12).
Brockport has some key contributors that will be returning. Junior forwards Chase Maxwell and Josh Grund are back with the squad. Maxwell was second in points on the team with 16 (seven + nine) in 23 games played while Grund was third with 15 (six + nine) in 22 games played. Twins Spencer and Schuyler Flansburg return for their sophomore years, after Spencer Flansburg posted 13 points (four + nine), which was fourth highest on the team, in 26 games played, and Schuyler Flansburg recorded eight points (four + four) in 18 games played.
“To be honest, we love our forward groups right now, probably as deep as it’s ever been,” Dickinson said. “We’ve been telling the guys the competition shows in practice, like we are so far ahead of where we’ve ever been at this point of the season in terms of guys getting better every day, guys learning the systems, guys, you know, gelling a little bit…we’re three or four days from our first game, and you know, as coaches, we honestly don’t know what the lineup will look on any given night.”
The Golden Eagles focused on making strides defensively in the offseason after their struggles last season. Brockport gave up the third most goals in the SUNYAC with 57. The defense remains mostly the same, with Cam Barbagallo being the only defenseman to leave the team, graduating last spring. Senior defenseman Dominic Chirico is back; he led the team in plus/minus as he was plus two for the season.
Dickinson received some defensive help from the transfer portal, with one of them being a familiar face from last year. Fifth year defenseman Mitchell Haight transferred in from Elmira. The Elmira Valedictorian finished last season with eight points (two + six) in 29 games played. He was also named as one of two captains for Brockport this year, with the other captain being fifth year forward Michael Meredith.
“He’s a very steady presence on the blue line,” Dickinson said. “He’s got good size, he skates well, he handles the puck, just very fundamentally sound defensively…we’re going to flood him in to try and utilize those skills we see in him…so we fully expect him to come in and have probably more offensive production…he holds himself professionally…not much really gets him, you know, kind of squirrely and he kind of has a calming presence to him.”
Brockport also got a division II goalie transfer and Tonawanda native Cole Hudson from American International College (AIC). Before being at AIC, he transferred from division I University of Vermont where he spent the first two seasons of his collegiate hockey career. Last season with the Yellow Jackets, he posted a .889 save percentage and 1.97 goals allowed in one game played.
Dickinson hopes with Hudson’s arrival, along with that of freshman goalie Dax Easter, there will be competition in net with the returners. Sophomores David Filak and Trevor Joule are the only goalies to return for next season, as Dylan Wiemer transferred to Nazareth for his fifth year. Filak ended last season with a .902 save percentage while allowing an average of 3.61 goals per game in eight games played and a 2-4-1 record. As for Joule, he finished last season with a .878 save percentage, a goals allowed average of 3.89 and a 0-0-1 record in three games played.
Special teams had some positives and negatives last season. The penalty kill improved from a success percentage of 74.7 in the 2022-2023 season to 83.8. However, the power play struggled as they had a conversion percentage of 14.1. Dickinson has focused on this issue with his team throughout practices and how the power play will operate.
“It’s a little bit different,” Dickinson said. “Just a couple of different, you know, mindset changes or philosophy changes for the group, and making sure that there’s specific goals that we want that group to accomplish. Coach [Brendan] Miller is doing a great job so far working with those guys, getting people to understand that it’s not about just puck possession. It’s about getting pucks to the net, it’s about puck retrievals and it’s about out working the PK, because traditionally why your power play isn’t successful since is you don’t work hard enough.”
Last season, the entire Golden Eagles roster was made up of Americans. That has completely changed for the upcoming season as Brockport brought in four freshman Canadians in forwards Sacha Trudel, Joseph Nikac and Aidan Taylor along with the goalie Easter. Also, they recruited Swiss freshman forward Livio Azevedo. The last European to be on Brockport’s hockey team was Austrian Alex Quendler, who recorded a point in three games played in the 2011-2012 season and wasn’t on the team in the second semester.
“I just feel like, yes, our American guys are good players, but there’s something about the way Canadians are brought up,” Dickinson said. “They bring a different mindset. They treat it a little bit differently. Liv [Azevedo] has kind of been in that same boat. He has played for his country in numerous tournaments. You know, he has a real good handle on the work ethic needed.”
Dickinson went into recruiting with a different approach and mindset compared to prior years.
“We wanted to build a roster,” Dickinson said. “In years past, you’re looking to get the best players you can get…what inevitably happens is you’ve got a couple of guys that are used to being ‘the guy,’ you know, at their previous level, and you’re trying to put them into a third or fourth line role…a lot of guys can’t make that transition…we got some guys that are really good passers. We’ve got some grinders, you know, we feel like we really built our roster.”
Brockport will open exhibition play against the EHL All-Stars on Friday at home at 7 p.m. The Golden Eagles came out on top against the All-Stars last year, winning 3-1.
The Golden Eagles will start regular season play on Friday, Nov. 1 against Saint Anslem College at 2 p.m. for the Buffalo State Bengals Classic. Brockport’s home opener will be against Utica on Saturday, Nov. 16 at 5 p.m.
