2007-2008 Season Review

 

 
With a 19 game unbeaten streak, an ECAC West Regular Season title and an appearance in the ECAC West Championship game as well as the NCAA Final Four, the 2007-08 season truly showed that the Elmira College Men’s Ice Hockey program had established itself as one of the top programs in the nation. With the guidance of seven year head coach Tim Ceglarski who achieved not only his 100th career coaching win, but was also named ECAC West Coach of the Year the Soaring Eagles were truly primed for greatness this past season.

Helping to achieve such a phenomenal season were three individuals that eventually garnered one of the top prizes an individual can achieve in his career at the collegiate level, a place on the RBK All-American team. This season marked the only the second time in program history that three players earned All-American recognition, and was the first time since Lawne Snyder ’04 that any player received this prestigious honor.

Fourth year Captain Michael Richard ’08 (LaSalle, QC -- Gloucester Rangers) capped off an amazing career by once again leading his team in both assists and points. Richard’s leadership on and off the ice helped the Soaring Eagles battle past some of the toughest opponents in Division III Men’s Hockey. For his efforts throughout the year, Richard was named ECAC West Co-Player of the Year as well as earning First Team All-Conference honors. At the NCAA Final Four, Richard was also named to the RBK All-American First Team, as well as finishing out the year as one of the top assists men in the nation. Richard will forever leave a lasting mark on the Soaring Eagles program having achieved his 100th career point in the middle of the season becoming the 46th player to achieve that mark.

Earning Second Team All-American recognition was third year defenseman Nicolas Dumoulin ’08 (Prevost, QC -- St. Jerome Panthers). Dumoulin who will be ending his career at Elmira a season early once again found himself in a place to dominate the ice both defensively and offensively. Along with the All-American recognition, came a ECAC West First Team All-Conference honor which was his third consecutive. His ability to find the back of the opponent’s cage on power-play situations also made him the team’s top power-play goal scorer. Nationally, Dumoulin ranked amongst some of the top defensive scorers having scored 12 goals with 18 assists in 28 games played.

Defensively Russell Smith ’08 (Annapolis, MD -- Lowell Lockmonsters) closed out his four year career with Elmira as the team’s top defensive scorer. His ability to distribute the puck throughout the year made him one of the top go to players both on and off the power-play. Combined with his size, Smith proved to be one of the most versatile and dominant defensive players to every play for the Soaring Eagles.

Forwards Andrew Bedford ’08 (Mississauga, ONT -- Mississauga Chargers) and Ryan Arnone ’08 (Colchester, CT -- Norwich Ice Breakers) helped guide this solid group of veterans and rookies to one of the most memorable seasons in recent years. As two of the most versatile players on the ice, Bedford and Arnone were able to shut down the opposition’s advances as well as starting key counter attacks that became infamous throughout the hockey world. In total the two combined for 12 goals and 9 assists on the year and will leave EC with over 196 games played under their belts respectively.

Graduating early with Dumoulin will be forward Derrick Ryan ’08 (Fournier, ONT -- Ottawa Jr. Senators) who time and time again used his size and strength to dominate any opponent that skated in his path. Even with an injury in the beginning of the season that kept him off the ice for nearly three months, Ryan returned to the Soaring Eagles line-up with a vengeance and could be found mixing it up with some of the toughest defensemen.

Second year goaltender Casey Tuttle ’10 (Chelsea, ME -- Portland Jr. Pirates) continued to show tremendous improvement from his rookie season. His growth as a player eventually earned him a place on both the ECAC West All-Conference Second Team as well as earning his first Second Team All-American honor as well. Currently tied for second for most shutouts in a season with 3, Tuttle is now ranked first all-time for saves percentage in a season and goals against average in a career. He also ended out the year in the top ten in the nation in both save percentage and goals against average, and garnered a place on the ECAC West Second Team All-Conference alongside Smith.

When it comes to national statistics second year forward Rusty Masters ’10 (Grafton, ONT -- Port Hope Predators) ended out the season as the top game winning goal scorer in all of Division III Men’s Ice Hockey scoring the clutch goal on 7 different occasions throughout the 2007-08 season. Masters also finished out the year as the team’s top goal scorer with 22 marks on the year as well as 12 assists. His six power-play goals placed him second on the team in that category. For his efforts he once again earned ECAC West Conference Recognition, this time earning a place on the Second Team. Masters’ ability to be in the key places not only made him one of the most dangerous players this season, but will continue to make him a standout player throughout the remainder of his career at Elmira.

With so much poise and skill shown through the year, next season is already set to be another amazing year for the Elmira College Men’s Ice Hockey team. Coach Ceglarski as well as the rest of the team will return next season knowing that they have all the tools they need to make another late run into March, where they will once again find themselves in contention for a National title.