The team that fell off the face of the Collegiate Roller Hockey World

[missionhockey33]

In the 2007-8 season the Stony Brook University Division One Mens team, held the #2 spot for several months. In April 2008 we all witnessed on YouTube, Internet Radio, as well as the NCRHA's website, one of the greatest upsets in NCRHA history handed to them by UCal Irvine. What happened to this team this year? I don't understand how you go from:

-winning the 2006-7 NCT in D2
-being ranked #2 behind the best team in College Roller Hockey (Lindenwood) 2007-8
-not being ranked at all after the 2007-8 NCT
-to being a mediocre team..


There was so much hype about this energizing team...
What happened?

[InlineMBA]

Sometimes, it's as simple as GRADUATION.

How many teams have won the Super Bowl, World Series, or NCAA Championship and didn't make the playoffs the following year? Answer - plenty.

I don't think you need to single out Stony Brook. It happens all the time in sports. Never mind the fact that the season ain't over and Stony Brook is still a very dangerous team.

Steve Inge - ROXBURY 8

[hockeydude92]

This situation is very delicate because the only person that graduated or eligibility ran out was Jim Tamburino.
Some of the other guys didn't return or transferred. Too bad, could have maybe seen another fun run.

Even though they have a decent team... just not the same caliber as that 07-08 team
Lambert probably knows, he knows about everything in the college hockey world hehe.

Sometimes, it's as simple as GRADUATION.

How many teams have won the Super Bowl, World Series, or NCAA Championship and didn't make the playoffs the following year? Answer - plenty.

I don't think you need to single out Stony Brook. It happens all the time in sports. Never mind the fact that the season ain't over and Stony Brook is still a very dangerous team.

Steve Inge - ROXBURY 8

[JLambertUMSL]

This situation is very delicate because the only person that graduated or eligibility ran out was Jim Tamburino.
Some of the other guys didn't return or transferred. Too bad, could have maybe seen another fun run.

Even though they have a decent team... just not the same caliber as that 07-08 team
Lambert probably knows, he knows about everything in the college hockey world hehe.

Thank you for the shout-out....I'm not sure if I deserve it or if you're even talking about me and not my brother....but here's my quick, honest take on SBU.

a. There were two different versions of SBU (both in the same calendar year, 2007) that were truly scary. The first scary-good version of SBU (the one that was on the winning end of arguably the second-greatest comeback in NCRHA history, their 6-5 win over Neumann in the ECRHA DII championship in a game they trailed 5-0) didn't exist for all that long. Stony Brook's leading postseason scorer in '07 was Ardjent Kalezic, who was only on their team for half of one season. Same with defenseman Mike Giordano, who didn't put up big numbers playing a stay-at-home game but blocked a lot of shots, broke up a lot of 2-on-1s, and dished out some well-timed physical play. Without those two, there's no way they beat Neumann. I won't mention Nationals.

b. The second scary-good version of SBU was also short-lived, because '07 DII MVP Matt Douglas left halfway through the '07-08 season, as did Ryan Carey, who would have been an impact player at Nationals and was probably part of the reason they were ranked so high.

c. SBU was 14-0 at semester break in '07-08. That means people stared at that undefeated record on paper (OK, the internet) for a long time. That can only feed the hype.

d. They were one line deep even WITH Douglas and Carey. Once the postseason rolled around, it was up to Tambo, Cartwright, and Keane to carry the team...

e. ...and they couldn't put the puck in the net, mostly because their power play didn't get the job done when it counted. 0-for-3 vs. Rhode Island in their 2-1 quarterfinal loss at the ECRHA Championships, then 0-for-5 vs. Eastern Michigan (lost 2-0) and 1-for-4 vs. UMSL (lost 3-2) in the round robin at Nationals. (On that note, their power-play goal against UMSL didn't come from a set-up power play situation, but from a good individual effort by Ricky Napoli, who stole the puck off a neutral-zone faceoff and finished a partial breakaway.)

f. They could have beaten UMSL in that much anticipated round-robin game, but UMSL was able to escape. Their next game was UCI. They came out on fire -- but as John Wooden said, "emotion is your enemy" and for every peak there's a valley.


(They put a lot into that UMSL game...and maybe Tomy Ames stole it. We needed him. He had revenge on his mind, and made some key saves -- one of which led to the go-ahead goal, and several more in the final couple minutes that preserved the one-goal victory.

Who knows if beating us -- and/or Eastern Michigan -- would have changed anything about the UCI game. I just wanted to give a gratuitous shout to an old timer.)

That's all just a bunch of opinions adding up to one big uneducated guess...an outsider's perspective..........so someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[warwick]

james,

i remember many of the neumann players saying how bad of a 3rd period they played against sb in the regional finals, and hoping for a rematch at nationals. i then remember no one cheering louder then sb after st. louis upset neumann in the semi finals. wonder if they shot their load in the regional finals.

[SBU39]

Im gunna start by sayin that was a pretttty accurate post by Lambert...covered alott. Im also gunna say we did lose a solidd goaltender in Craig Brodmerkel after the Nationals win, and if anyone watched us that year, it was great confidence booster to roll 2 goalies no matter what the situation. Aside from Archie, Douglas, Carey (for 3ish games), Giordano and Curran from D2 year to D1 year...we also lost Tambo, Ricky, Dan Castellano and Ted Pops this year, teddy being a huge locker room presence. Thats 10 guys who all played a real role on the team

Thats just in response to us not losing players, because we have, even though that hasnt been an excuse to us not playing within our system and playing good hockey in the time u mentioned...teams work on things, they try to improve, dont worry, we'll give u more to talk about next semester, we all know how much you guys love to talk

james,

i remember many of the neumann players saying how bad of a 3rd period they played against sb in the regional finals, and hoping for a rematch at nationals. i then remember no one cheering louder then sb after st. louis upset neumann in the semi finals. wonder if they shot their load in the regional finals.

In response to that- HAHAHAHAHHHAHAHA IM SUUUUURE. If u saw how umm immaturely neumann handled themselves in the handshake after that game at regionals, you would understand why we reacted that way. There was nothing we wanted more than to play them again, we felt untouchable from regionals on, and we played that way. Believe me, we were ready to play whoever at nationals, and the two best teams at the tourny showed up in the finals. We thought it was fitting that a team that boasted they would 'see us when it really mattered' and 'show us it was just a fluke' didnt make it to the big game that year, nothing more than that


...happy holidays and have a safe new year

-Nick Gullo #39 SBU Hockey

[RustyPipes27]

No offense to anyone involved, but I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that UCI knocking off Stonybrook at Nationals was one of the greatest upsets in the history of the NCRHA. Both teams were good teams, and pretty evenly matched heading into the game. If anything, UCI was the favorite going in. Just saying.

[JLambertUMSL]

No offense to anyone involved, but I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that UCI knocking off Stonybrook at Nationals was one of the greatest upsets in the history of the NCRHA. Both teams were good teams, and pretty evenly matched heading into the game. If anything, UCI was the favorite going in. Just saying.

I don't think it was an upset either...it was the greatest comeback probably, but not an upset.

[JLambertUMSL]

By the way, something I haven't seen mentioned about that UCI-SBU game...

Did you know Charlie Middleton's three straight goals in the third period were goals 98, 99, and 100, making him the first NCRHA player to score 100 in a season?

That's just amazing. (And then he scores the OT game-winner in the NARCh Pro final, are you kidding me? Insane. I think it's safe to say that he's the player of 2008 in roller hockey.)