In each of the past three seasons, the Castleton men’s ice hockey team has been upset by a lower seed in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) East Quarterfinal round at home. Headed into the 2010-11 campaign, head coach Alex Todd wants to overcome that trend.
“Every year we want to host playoff games,” said Todd. “This year, our top goal is to take advantage of home ice in the playoffs and advance to the semifinals.”
In order to reach that goal, Josh Harris and Stuart Stefan may have to replicate their scoring output from a season ago. Last winter, Harris led the club in points finishing the season with nine goals and a team-leading 19 assists. Stefan was the main goal scoring threat for Castleton lighting the lamp 16 times while adding eight assists. The Spartans will also need some of their younger players on the squad to emerge on the defensive side of the puck.
“The team will be young this year, but with our top scoring forwards returning our focus will be defense and helping out our goalies,” said Todd. After struggling through his sophomore campaign, goalie Seth McNary appears poised to reclaim his first-year form that registered a 2.10 goals against average and two shutouts in 11 games. Defensemen Tyler Atkins, Jonathan Lafrance and Brad Barber will all be looked upon to secure the blue line in front of McNary this season.
Castleton opens up 2010-11 campaign, on the road, in ECAC East action against St. Anselm on Friday, November 19 at 7 p.m. The Spartans first home contest at Spartan Arena will be against Becker at 6 p.m. on Saturday, November 27 in the Spartan Invitational. Castleton will also be hosting Tufts and Brockport St. who play each other 3 p.m. The championship game of the Spartan Invitational will be held the following day at 3 p.m. while the consolation game will take place at 12 p.m.
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