The Empire Collegiate Hockey Conference was recently given the opportunity to host the ACHA 2011-2012 National Championship. The Conference is honored and in preparation for the event, the Empire is hosting their first annual tournament. This showcase, simply dubbed “The Classic” with the top four teams in the Empire against the the top four teams in the Delaware Valley Collegiate Hockey Conference, The Blue Ridge Hockey Conference, and rival College Hockey East. This 16 team tournament will take place at the Canlan Ice Facility in Vineland, NJ on November 19th, 20th, and 21st.

Each team will play three games and Conference Points will be awarded as follows:

Three points will go to the winning team One point will be award for each period won An extra point will be awarded for a 4 goal differential An extra point will be awarded for a shutout

Each team will be placed in a pool with a team from each league. The games will all count for ACHA ranking purposes and all the games will be used to determine a Conference winner. Teams have been placed in the following pools by Conference Commissioners:

Pool A: Farmingdale – Cal U of PA – Salisbury – Alvernia
Pool B: Robert Morris – Albany – West Chester – Richmond
Pool C: Catholic – PSU Brandywine – Southern Connecticut – Fredonia
Pool D: Richard Stockton – UNC Wilmington – PSU Altoona – Fairfield

Games times to be announced shortly!

A month or so before exam week a tragedy occurs in downtown Fredonia. A candle sparked the flame that ignited the Barker Commons Apartments on Main Street, causing many of its occupants to flee from the building.“A young lady was trying to light a candle and it fell on a mattress,” Meyers said. He added that the girls in the apartment attempted to put the fire out before it spread to a nearby curtain and got out of hand.

The Fredonia Fire Department was notified and responded at 8:52 p.m. Firefighters battled the blaze for nearly two and a half hours before they were able to get it under control. Fire companies from Dunkirk, East Dunkirk, Mayville, Brocton and Westfield were all called in for mutual aid.

Hundreds of community members gathered outside the building and watched firefighters battle the blaze.

After watching that event the executive board of the A.C.H.A. hockey team decided to do some sort of fundraiser for the fire victims. That’s when Louie Maier had an idea to make signs, t-shirts and get the hockey team out around the intersection of the apartment and ask locals for donations. The event went wonderful and raised a total of just over $1,980 for the victims.

We would like to announce to everyone the FSU ACHA Blue Devils have been featured on the SUNY Fredonia website in an article about the teams success in regionals and reaching the Division III National Tournament in Fort Myers, Florida.  So please take the time to read the article as this is a very exciting time for our organization and having the opportunity to play for a once in the lifetime chance at becoming National Champions. The article can be found by clicking the link below.

FSU Hockey Featured Article

Fredonia Overcomes First Period Deficit to Defeat the University Of Pittsburgh

The Fredonia State Blue Devils improved their record to 9-3-2 with a big win over Division Opponent University of Pittsburgh.  The Blue Devil’s trailed 1-0 after the first period, but came out strong in the second tallying 4 goals.  The first goal for Fredonia came with 14 minutes remaining in the second and was scored by Andrew Dissanyake assisted by Aaron Miller and Dave Weidert.  The Blue Devils struck again only 30 seconds later on the power play with Pat Capella scoring on the assist from Dissanyake. Grant Corsaro then buried home a rebound on a shot from Dave Richards with 11:03 remaining in the period, Vince Epping also picked up an assist on the play.  The final goal of the period was scored with 8:11 remaining on a shot from Dan Schwab assisted by Miller.  This forced Pitt to make a goalie change.

Fredonia continued their strong play early on in the third with a quick goal only 1 minute into the third, again scored by Schwab, assisted by Dan Trombley making the score 5-1.  Fredonia made the score 6-1 on a point shot from Weidert with the assist by Nick Ferrentino and Vince Epping on the power play.  With 8 minutes remaining Ferrentino scored on the assist from Brian Becker to put Fredonia up by 6.  Penalties then hurt Fredonia as they were in the box for the most of the remainder of the game and Pitt put in 2 late goals to make the final score 7-3.  In goal for Fredonia, Jeff Frohm played a strong game.

This saturday at 3:45pm in Steele Hall Ice Arena, the Fredonia State Blue Devils will be playing their first game vs. the University of Rochester. This will be a good opening test for them and can help to set the tone for the season. Check out the game intro video below.