After opening the season last Friday with a tough loss at the Naval Academy, the Virginia ice hockey team will open its home schedule at the Charlottesville Ice Park this weekend with a 10 p.m. Friday contest against Rider and a 7 p.m. Saturday game against LaSalle. Saturday's game is part of "Hockey Day in Charlottesville," so admission, which is always free with a U.Va. ID, is free for everyone.
This year, the Cavaliers are looking to reclaim a familiar position that recently has slipped out of their grasp -- ACC Hockey League champions. Since the inception of the ACCHL in 1996, Virginia has won the league title six times, but the Cavaliers have not been able to add to that tally in the past few seasons.
"We lost in the championship my first year," third-year team president Mike Martyak said. "And we lost last year in the semis to the team that went on to win, so it's been kind of frustrating that we haven't won."
What made last season's 3-2 semifinal loss to Duke especially hard was how well the Cavaliers played. Virginia out-shot the Blue Devils 2 to 1 but just happened to run into a hot goalie at the wrong time. Overall, Virginia finished the season with an 8-4 record in the ACC and 10-11 overall due to some tough out-of-conference scheduling.
Ending last season on a sour note has done nothing but encourage the holdovers from last year's squad to come out even harder for this campaign.
"Our players are the ones who wanted to get on the ice a little earlier this year than we did last year," Virginia coach Rob Boyle said. "That just goes to show the type of commitment and desire these guys have to compete."
Part of the reason for the increased level of commitment and dedication is the kind of players Virginia hockey now attracts. Assistant coach and General Manager Roger Voisinet has done an especially strong job publicizing the team. There are a couple team Web sites full of information, and last year the team made a five-minute recruiting video narrated by the "Voice of Cavalier Football," Mac McDonald. The effects of these efforts have been clear.
"In years past it's been pretty much guys have been on campus and found out that we have a hockey team and kind of came," Martyak said. "Now a lot of kids come prepared to play hockey."
This year, Virginia welcomes a strong group prepared to fill in for the five seniors lost from last year's team. The incoming class is made up of three first years, goalie Tyler Teass and forwards Adam Hermida and Pat Girasiak, as well as two transfers and one graduate student. Since the Cavaliers play as an American College Hockey Association division II team, they were able to welcome grad student Fredrik Nilsson from Sweden as well as sophomores Risto Keravouri from George Mason and Ryan Sheppard from Virginia Tech.
The Cavaliers return their top-three scorers from last year, Martyak, Alex Bronson and junior Ian McGuire, as well as both goalkeepers. The strong incoming class combined with the returning players has made for the same championship aspirations as in past years.
"We don't expect anything less for ourselves other than competing for a championship," Boyle said. "Our goal is to finish at least first or second and to be playing for the championship at the end of the season. If you set your goals any smaller than that you're not going to achieve them, so we want to win the whole thing."
In the Virginia recruiting video, Mac McDonald says, "You can do no better than earn a degree and play hockey at the University of Virginia." As a Cavalier, or possibly just a hockey fan, it's hard to do better than earn a degree and watch some hockey at the University. And even if the degree part isn't going so well, the hockey is still good.
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