By Mikael DeSanto
Staff Writer
The St. Bonaventure club hockey team had its most recent game cut short due to lack of officiating, as the referees were stuck in Buffalo and could not make the game. The Bonnies faced Ithaca in their last home game of the season, making it senior night for the team.
The two teams only played two periods before the game was stopped. For those periods, former players Mike Felter and Taylor Rosenberg and asst. coach Jordan Farnham stepped in as the referees. The game finished as a 3-3 tie after the stoppage.
Senior John Rogers had natural feelings when he was first told about the shortening of the game, but his feelings changed as the game went on.
“Sure, I was mad in the beginning, but I took what was given to me and made the best out of it,” Rogers said.
Junior Connor Moore saw what senior night was from an outsiders’ perspective and sympathized with his teammates’ feelings.
“You could definitely tell the seniors took it the hardest because they had expected so much out of our last game, and the underclassmen were also ready to give it their all for our seniors,” Moore said. “It was hard to watch the seniors lose their special night, but at the same time it doesn’t change what they have done for us their last four years.”
Senior captain Nate Parker looked beyond the disappointment of the shortened game and saw the positives of the game.
“It was one final time to play, at home, in front of friends and family,” Parker said. “We had a great crowd full of people that we seniors wanted to play in front of.”
Rogers not only sees positives from senior night but also positives for the season as a whole. The Bonnies finished with a 3-4 record in seven games played, earning them six points.
“I felt like although we didn’t win the amount of games we may have liked, we were in a lot more games than we may have been in years past,” Rogers said. “I feel like this year was a huge step in the right direction and hopefully a stepping stone for the future.”
The main focus of the team will now be on making a strong playoff run in the coming weeks. Moore sees the upcoming playoffs as a time when the team should only focus on each game, not the tournament as a whole.
“Bonaventure has not had a great playoff presence in our last few seasons, but I think we are still looking to take each game one step at a time,” Moore said. “Rumor has it that our first game will be Ithaca, so you can believe that all (our) focus is on beating them.”
Rogers has looked at some of the positive things the team should focus on going into the playoffs and said he knows how important it is to get going early.
“It is important, though, that when we gain a lead, we keep that lead and never let up,” Rogers said. “If we get the lead and can figure out a way to hold that lead, we will be very successful in these playoff games.”
Parker also looked at the strength of his team this season and said he sees areas for improvement for this year’s playoffs.
“The best thing we can do is use the playoff weekend to develop our young guys even further,” Parker said. “This program will be a team to beat once our young guys hit their potential.”
Looking back at his time with this year’s seniors, Moore had nothing but kind words to say about his teammates.
“Bona’s Hockey is a program that has been slowly rising in the last few years, and this year’s step forward was really taken by our seniors recruiting a solid freshmen class that they will leave behind for us as they move on,” Moore said. “What they have done for this program will never be overlooked (because of) a senior night that didn’t live up to expectations.”
