The Curry Men's Hockey team has taken the program to new heights this season, and they have no ideas of stopping now. A top 10 team all season, they have recently become a mainstay in the top five, currently sitting at #3 in the DIIIHockeynews.com poll, and #4 in the USCHO poll. More importantly, the Colonels sit at #1 in the NPI rankings, which determine the seeding in the NCAA tournament. The Colonels are currently on a 14-game winning streak, the longest in the country, and the program's longest winning streak going back to 1995.
The Colonels will take on the #4 seed in the CNE on Saturday in Suffolk. The Colonels, who are the #1 seed in the conference tournament for the second straight year, won both matchups this year against the Rams by a combined 10-2 score. Going back to 1995, the Colonels are 38-9-3 against Suffolk, including 23-4-1 at home. The Colonels have won 11 straight games against the Rams, and are 17-0-1 in the last 18 games going back to 2016. The last time the Colonels lost to the Rams at home was 2010.
For the Colonels, this is an opportunity to shake last year's demons. Last year, in a similar situation of hosting a conference semifinals as the #1 seed, the Colonels would fall flat and lose to Salve Regina 7-2. Prior to the game there were talks of the Colonels hosting an NCAA tournament game. With that loss, the question became whether the Colonels would even make it into the NCAA tournament, let alone host a game.
The team this year has a lot of players that were on the ice for that game last season, and shown that they have learned from it. On offense, the Colonels boast 13 players with 4+ goals, led by captain Eelis Laaksonen. Despite having only scored one goal in the past seven games, his 14 goals on the season were good for the fourth most in the CNE. Over those seven games, Nolan McDonough has exploded. He has scored in each of the last four games, totaling five goals in that stretch. Despite missing 10 games this year, his 10 goals were second on the team, and eighth in the CNE. Meanwhile, Gage Dill, who also missed some time earlier in the year, leads the team with 15 assists, good for fifth in the conference.
For Laaksonen, the game on Saturday will also mean a huge accomplishment, as he has played in 108 games in his Curry career. Once he plays his first shift against the Rams, he will join Brian Doherty '05 and Ryan Barlock '12 in a tie for the most games played in program history. He has played in 98 straight games, and only missed one game, the 11th game of his freshman year in 2021.
While the Curry offense certainly packs a punch, their bread and butter is in between the pipes in sophomore goaltender Shane Soderwall. The question about Soderwall entering the season was whether he would be able to follow up a freshman season that saw him win conference rookie and goalie of the year, set a program record for shutouts with five, and made an NCAA record tying 98 saves in the Colonels 4OT loss in the NCAA tournament to eventual champion Hobart. He answered that immediately posting back to back shutouts in the first two games of the season. He wouldn't stop there, shutting out the opponents a program record (again) seven times. His 12 career shutouts are also a program record.
On the season, Soderwall has posted a 1.425 GAA, with each of the three individuals ahead of him playing more than 400 minutes less than him. His .945 save percentage ranks tied for third, with the two individuals ahead of him facing 300 less shots than him. He has been the best goalie in the country, and it has not been close.
For the Rams, there is no one person on offense that will keep you up at night, as it is a team effort. They have seven players with at least four goals on the season, led by Daniel McKiernan, Scott McManus, and Joe O'Brien each with six. O'Brien leads the team in points with 14. In net, it will be senior CJ Hapward for the Rams, as he has started all 26 games for the Rams this season. He has a 1.90 GAA, and 0.934 save percentage. For goalies with at least 1,000 minutes in net this season, his GAA ranks third in the country. In order for the Rams to have a chance, he will need to bring his A-game like he did in the quarterfinals, where he posted a 46 save shutout over Nichols.
The two teams will battle for a spot in the CNE Championship game on Saturday, with a start time of 3pm at the Canton Ice House.
