Winter and hockey are inseparable, and this weekend's activities at the Charlottesville Ice Park are no exception. Starting tomorrow, the Virginia's men's club hockey team will be hosting the Atlantic Coast Collegiate Hockey League tournament. The tournament -- the last of the season -- will pit club hockey teams from Duke, North Carolina, George Mason, Virginia Tech, Georgetown and Virginia against each other in a three-day affair that will culminate in the crowning of a league champion Sunday, Feb. 26.
Virginia (9-11-2, 5-1-2 ACCHL), the tournament's No. 2 seed, earned a bye into the tournament's semifinal round and is second only to Duke in the seeding. This advantageous position isn't unfamiliar territory for Virginia's club hockey program, which boasts five regular season ACCHL titles and two ACCHL tournament championships since the League's inception in 1996.
Recent years haven't been so kind to the club hockey team, however. While the team has able to post more wins than losses in league play, it has fallen short of the ultimate goal of an ACCHL tournament crown. Last year the team fell to Georgetown in the tournament's championship game, and in 2002 the team lost a heartbreaker to N.C. State in the final round.
Players and coaches alike are optimistic that this year will be different.
The team is "peaking at the right time," coach Rob Boyle said. He noted that the team is led by an experienced core of veteran fourth years who are more than capable of securing the ACCHL title which for the last several years has proved elusive.
"If we play to our full capabilities I can see us winning this thing," Boyle said.
Fourth-year defender Mike Martyak echoed the sentiments of his coach. "There's a lot of fourth years on this team," he said. "We've had three opportunities [in the ACCHL tournament] and fallen just short. I think this year will be different."
Based on the character and abilities of this year's club, there is good reason to buy into the team's optimism. The premiere scoring line, anchored by Alex Bronson, David Parisian and Patrick Giesecke, has now been together for two consecutive years and tops the ACCHL in scoring. Additionally, Boyle said the team doesn't depend on any one facet of the game, but rather plays with a combination of speed, physicality and competent goaltending. When asked if the team had any particularly imposing players, assistant coach Roger Voisinet didn't hesitate to state that "all the guys are big hitters."
The club hockey team will take this intensity to the ice Saturday, when it plays the highest-seeded winner of Friday night's quarterfinal games. The coaching staff and players expect their semifinal opponent to be Georgetown, a team they narrowly lost to in the regular season, but one Virginia is confident they can beat this time around.
In any case, the hockey team will be anticipating two "tough" games for the team this weekend. They recognize that it's do-or-die time, and that as the tournaments hosts, visiting teams will be gunning for them.
"All the teams at this tournament are solid teams," Boyle said. "We're not scared of anybody. This is what you play for all year. It's a culmination of the season."
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