You may not have heard a great deal about the Suffolk University men's team, given the competition for attention in this busy sports town, but the Rams are worthy of notice.
Suffolk, led by coach Chris Glionna, already has won seven games, its total all of last season. The Rams are 5-0 in the ECAC Northeast, with their next game at UMass-Boston Dec. 28 in the Codfish Bowl.
"We're [7-4 overall] right now, and that includes losing a couple of close games," said Glionna, whose full-time job is as a litigation attorney for the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. "We think we can carry this momentum into winning a lot of games, including some league games, and that's the most important thing to us. Our top goal is to be able to compete to win the league, and to do that you've got to make the playoffs."
The Rams, a Division 3 team, have an abundance of talent, which gives Glionna hope that there will be plenty of hockey left after the regular season.
"The kids put a lot of importance on all those league games," he said. "The most league wins the school has ever had since it joined the ECAC Northeast is six. So we've already got five, so we're not only hoping to match the six, but get up there where not only are we in the playoffs but we have home-ice advantage."
It's not often that a team hangs its fortunes on a freshman goaltender, but Suffolk has and it's working. Jeff Rose, who is a lanky 6 feet 3 inches, has played in 11 games, compiling a 7-3 record.
"Jeff's been excellent," said Glionna. "He came in out of the Valley Junior Warriors [in Haverhill]. It just seemed like every night we went to watch him play he was just excellent. He adds a nice dimension of being able to handle the puck extremely well, which was a problem we had in the past. He really helps. He's almost like a defenseman on the penalty kill."
Glionna said the 21-year-old Rose has shown a tremendous range and is improving.
"He's a real big kid, but he's thin," said Glionna. "If you see him without his stuff on, you'd be kind of surprised. He's very quick and positionally he's very good and he works at it. Every day he really competes in practice. When he lets up goals in practice, he's upset about it, which I think is a good sign."
Rose's numbers - 3.17 goals-against average and .899 save percentage - don't wow you, but what doesn't show up in the statistics is the degree to which Suffolk is a high-risk, high-reward team.
"One of the things we are is a very offensive team," said Glionna. "We pressure the puck in all situations. What will happen with that is if you get beat in those situations, it puts your goalie in a bad spot. We do allow probably more odd-man rushes than we'd like or clean scoring chances than we'd like. So he does see some more quality shots than maybe some of the other goalies do, so maybe that's why his numbers are down. But we can rely on him to make those saves most of the time and that gives us the ability to play as aggressively as we do. That in turn has helped us win a lot of hockey games."
Offensively, the Rams are led by senior forwards Dan Pencinger and Tim Dancey, who have 20 points apiece.
"Danny Pencinger is our captain," said Glionna. "When people ask me why we're better this year than we've been in the past, I usually can just point to Danny and say not only is he our best player but he's our hardest worker. When he's consistently outworking everyone in practice, it's real easy for me to turn to the other guys and say, 'Look how hard your leader is working. You've got to get up to that standard.' We've always had some good kids, but sometimes the work ethic hasn't been there. He's setting a new standard for how we want our players to work."
Breaking point
The Harvard men's team went on a bit of a slide heading into the recess. The Crimson are winless in four games (0-3-1) but only three count in the standings since one loss was to the US Under-18 team. Harvard was pounded, 7-2, by Boston College in its last outing, Dec. 12. Next up for Harvard is the Ohio Hockey Classic in Columbus Dec. 29 and 30. The Crimson will take on Ohio State in the first game . . . The Harvard women suffered their first loss of the season, 4-1, to New Hampshire last Friday. The Crimson (11-1), who were ranked No. 1 but have dropped to No. 3, outshot UNH, 14-2, in the third period, but Wildcats freshman goaltender Kayley Herman was outstanding. UNH had just 12 shots for the game and only four in the final 40 minutes. Sam Faber had two goals for the Wildcats, including a shorthanded tally that held up as the winner. Next up for UNH, which rose from No. 2 to No. 1 in the rankings, is a game at Brown Jan. 5. The Crimson next play at home against Cornell Jan. 4.Nancy Marrapese-Burrell can be reached at marrapese@globe.com.
