2013-14 Season Recap

 

The 2013-14 season was quite the experience from all facets.  Gettysburg College hockey was coming off a great season where they just missed the conference championship and were looking forward to another great season.  However, they knew that they would face some challenges, especially in the first semester. They knew that 4 players would be going abroad, including both of their starting goaltenders from last season, juniors Sam Shockley, and Jon Lipshutz.  Additionally top scorer Mike Berestecky would also be studying abroad.  But even though they had these hurdles they hoped that some of the veterans and a few new players would step up.

When the season started, Gettysburg’s goaltending situation lie on the shoulders of sophomore Ramiz Chaudhary who performed well last season in the few games he started, but it was not known if he was ready for a starting role.  Additionally, junior Ian Cleary, came “out of retirement” to accept the backup duties as he had not played goaltender in three years.  Gettysburg even hired a goaltender coach to work with these young netminders to get them ready for the season.
The season opened with a wake up call as Gburg faced off against national power house UMBC, and were routed 12-1.  Despite the score, Chaudhary did well given the superior opponent.  However, Chaudhary had other thoughts and the next day left Gettysburg College all together, leaving only Cleary to pick up the pieces.  Gettysburg won their next game against UPENN, but that would be the beginning of Gettysburg’s woes. 

Gettysburg would lose their next 10 of 11 games as they were plagued with injuries and did not have the confidence between the pipes.  The only shining moment was against Bucknell University at home where Gettysburg played with only 7 players, and came back from a three goal deficit to win the game in overtime.  
When the players returned from the semester abroad, things began to look better as Shockley was back in net and Berestecky was back putting the puck in net.  But Shockley broke his wrist in his second game back and the team was back to square one for the final three games and lost all three.  

This was certainly a rough season and the spirit of Gettysburg hockey was shaken.  Gettysburg looks for a good recruit class to carry the team back to their winning ways and hopes to return back to the conference playoffs.