By Gavin Lindahl
Assistant Sports Editor
Despite its late game heroics in Sunday’s 8-7 win over Canisius College, the St. Bonaventure club hockey team will not find their way into the playoffs this season.
After struggling to win in the first semester, the Bonnies were hoping to find a playoff seed after strong play in the second half of the semester, according to senior forward Sean Perhacs.
“If we would’ve started this run in the first semester, I have no doubt that we’d be sitting pretty right now,” Perhacs said. “But we’re unfortunately out of the playoffs, and sometimes, that’s just how it goes.”
The Bonnies have won four of their last five with an even spread of scoring amongst the skaters – something that would not have been expected of the team before break.
“I think the guys have finally found their groove,” Perhacs said. “We have played significantly better in the second semester the past three seasons, and this year is no exception.”
According to Perhacs, the team didn’t walk away from the weekend completely empty handed. Success in several aspects of the Bonnies’ game shows promise for the coming seasons.
“The power play was clicking, and that made us feel confident. That results in goals,” Perhacs said. “We’ve really started to look like a playoff team, and hopefully, that can carry over to next year for the guys.”
The Bonnies close out their season this weekend with a game tonight against Cornell at the William O. Smith Recreation Center in Olean at 8:30. After that, the Bonnies will finish up on the road against Ithaca on Saturday evening at 5.
Although this weekend may be the last time most of the Bonnies hockey players will lace up their skates this season, it definitely won’t be for senior forward Michael Iulianello.
Iulianello will travel to Quebec City, Quebec next month to participate in Red Bull’s Crashed Ice event. Crashed Ice is an extreme downhill ice cross featuring steep turns, jumps and vertical drops.
The tour, which has four stops each year, already visited Finland on Feb 1, and is slated to visit St. Paul, Minnesota on February 22; Moscow, Russia on March 8 and Quebec City on March 22.
Iulianello, who failed to qualify for the St. Paul event, travelled to London, Ontario to qualify as one of 100 Canadian amateurs last weekend.
“It’s still surreal to know that I will be flying down that course in Quebec City in March. I can’t thank everyone enough for the support,” Iulianello said. “It feels incredible.”
Each event starts with 200-300 skaters that progress over three events on three days starting on a Thursday, March 20. The event starts with a national shootout, where around 100 qualified amateurs from each country get two time trials down the course.
The top 32 international skaters advance to Friday’s event where they faceoff with the top 32 national (Canadian, in Iulianello’s case) skaters. Saturday is the final day and includes the top 64 athletes going down the track four at a time. The top two in each heat advance until the final four. The first one down out of those four wins.
“The hockey team’s old coach showed me a flier last year, so this year, I made sure to watch out for it,” Iulianello said. “Making it to Quebec City can open up doors for the future. I believe I already will have a spot at a Canadian qualifier next year. But if I do well enough in the event, I think it could propel me to the next level of the dream – to become a tour member and make all four stops of the circuit.”
According to Iulianello, he still understands that there’s plenty of work ahead of him despite the excitement of qualifying
“I hear that Quebec City is the longest of the four courses, so I will definitely need to put in the work to be in the best shape possible,” he said. “I plan to work with my teammates Kyle Crawford and Taylor Rosenberg over the next month. I’ll be skating almost every day down at the rink, and then, I am going to hit Allegany Skate Park with rollerblades to try to simulate the jumps and such that I’ll see in Quebec City. Other than that, there is no real way to practice going down that course. It is going to be something completely foreign to me – along with speaking French.”
