In only their second year of competition (last year the team went 9-1), the ECU men’s ice hockey team sits in first place in the Blue Ridge Hockey Conference Southwest division and are on pace to not only win the league championship, but might even go to nationals.
Head Coach Wayne Cox thought the first half of the season was a success and that the team is in control of its own destiny.
“The first half of the season was a success,” said Cox. “The only thing we can really control is our own future in respect to winning hockey games. We are 9-0 in the Blue Ridge. The initial goal is to win the Blue Ridge. From there is to get to nationals and compete well in nationals.”
Cox also thought the Pirates’ success in the first half of the season set the team up for great things in the second half, even though he admits that there are still some tough games ahead.
“If you look upon our season as like playing a golf hole, what we have done over the first half of the season, basically, is to put the tee shot 300 yards down the middle,” Cox said. “We have 150 yards in but we still got a couple of traps around us. But we’re in pretty darn good position right now.”
The first half of the season wasn’t without a low moment, however. The Pirates dropped a 5-4 decision to Loyola College in which junior forward Corey Fleitz thought they should have won.
“We’re 9-1. We had a tough loss against a team we should have beat [Loyola]. Other than that, we had a great first semester” said Fleitz, who had five goals and eight assists in first semester play.
As far as statistics are concerned, the Pirates were very dominating, tallying 18 points in BRHC action. The team scored 80 goals, while only allowing 31. Freshmen Kyle Johnson tallied eight goals and five assists over the 10 games played. Freshmen Dan Duda and Mitchell Sears, scored six goals to go along with an outstanding 11 assists each. Brent Flacon, the team president as well as the main goalie, totaled 222 saves to go along with only 28 goals aloud on 250 shot attempts.
Assistant coach Todd Carter didn’t think the team needed to change a thing in the second half of season. He thought they should continue playing in the exact same fashion.
“You certainly don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” said Carter. “If we were 3-7, we would certainly have to change something, but right now, like Coach Cox said, we just keep building on our successes and grow from there.”
Coach Cox agreed with Carter, but he would like to see the freshmen play to their own level.
“If there is one thing that I would like to see changed, and it’s very minor, is that we have a lot of freshman that contribute significantly to the team,” said Cox. “I’d like to see the freshmen play to their own level and not necessarily to the level of competition we are playing against. If this team plays at the level they are capable of playing, we shouldn’t lose hockey games. If we play at 85 percent of our capacity, we would beat teams in the top two or three in the South easily. We have that kind of talent.”
Even with all the success the Pirates have had in only their first two years, team president and goalie Brent Falcon admitted that he did not envision success this fast.
“Going into our first season we were excited just to have a team, and by our estimation a much more talented team than we have ever anticipated for the first year,” said Falcon. “We were absolutely blown away when we had between 300-400 fans at every home game that year. We knew we would win games, but we had no idea that anyone would care about ice hockey in eastern North Carolina. The response the media, university and community showed was unimaginable. It feels great to know that we have created something that will be a part of ECU for years to come. It’s clear to us that an ice hockey team is something ECU and the Greenville community wanted and has embraced, and we will continue to do everything we can to put the highest caliber hockey team on the ice year in and year out,” Falcon said.
In a sign of just how big the hockey craze has become over the last two years here at ECU, Pirate Radio 1250 is doing a promotion in conjunction with the men’s basketball team calling for a “blackout.” UBE will be selling special black “Arrrrrgh!” T-shirts sponsored by Pirate Radio 1250 in hopes that those in attendance at both events will wear the shirts creating the “blackout.” Pirate Radio will also be broadcasting the six home hockey games this semester.
The Pirates return to action this weekend as they compete in the Canes Cup in Raleigh. They will be facing stiff competition against Duke, N.C. State and Virginia Tech in three straight days of action. The team returns to Bladez on Ice on Jan. 19 to play a huge two game divisional series with Appalachian State.
