Fredonia State men's hockey is home twice this weekend.
The Blue Devils (1-4, 1-2 SUNYAC) face the SUNY Geneseo Ice Knights at 7 p.m. Friday in the first of two SUNYAC games.
At second game, at 7 p.m. Saturday, pits the Blue Devils against the College at Brockport Golden Eagles.
“After five games into the season,” Blue Devil head coach
Jeff Meredith said, “we have a better handle on where we are as a team. Looking back to last year, we scored a lot of goals. So far this year, those goals have not been coming and we have identified a few areas to work on.”
Meredith said the Blue Devils have to learn to be less selective with their shots.
“We have to have a willingness to simply get pucks to the net from anywhere instead of just looking for Grade A opportunities,” he said. “Secondly, we have to get people going to the net without the puck so we can generate some rebound chances and put-backs. I think this will lend itself to helping us in the goals-for column.”
In addition to getting more shots on net, Meredith wants his team to make better choices in the neutral zone.
“We need to manage the puck better and understand that when we have zero options, the best play is to push the puck forward and get it deep,” he said. “Early on we have been trying to always make something out of nothing and it always seems to be coming back our way pretty quick and ending up being a good chance for the opponent.”
Meredith feels his team was outworked in its most recent game, a 2-1 overtime loss Nov. 5 to Buffalo State. That shortcoming is something he hadn't expected.
“The last thing we worked on this week was increasing our work level, he said. “After the Buffalo State game we thought that we only worked about 24 minutes out of 60, while Buffalo State worked all 60. This weekend our challenge, and I am confident that we will accomplish it, will be to put in a solid 60-minute effort.”
The Steele Hall ticket office opens at 6 p.m. each night.
