The Red Dragons took their second five hour trip of the season to Glastonbury, CT over the weekend. Cortland's overall record at the Z-Rink (3-1-2) brought confidence to this set of games. The UMass- Amherst Minutemen was the first game of the weekend. Lou Vetri started the game in net and made 28 saves on 36 shots. Down 3-1 at the end of the first period, the Red Dragon squad crawled back in the second period to shorten the deficit to 5-4 by the end of the period. The third period saw UMass score two power-play goals and one even strength goal. Cortland dropped the first game 8-4. Chris Poplarski and Tommy Farr had 2 goals each while Brendan Joyce tallied 3 assists.
Confidence was down starting the second game. Cortland faced the Ramapo College Roadrunners and if the pre-season game (12-4 Cortland) between the two teams would be an indicator of the outcome this should have been a victory. Cortland controlled the first period of the game however, they trailed 2-1 after the period with the goal coming with 14 seconds left by Tommy Farr off a rebound. Ramapo came out strong in the second stanza scoring one power-play goal and one even strength goal putting the Red Dragons down 4-1 going into the third. Ramapo went up 5-1 four minutes into the third and nothing clicked the rest of the way for the Red Dragons. Nick Boffoli tallied a goal with four minutes remaining in the game but it was not enough. Cortland lost 5-2.
The final game of the weekend was a rematch of an earlier game in the year against the first place Northeastern University Huskies (10-0-1). Cortland managed a 3-3 tie in the first meeting. However, 37 shots on goaltender Ross Midgen would be too much for the Red Dragons to handle. Max Duncan, the top ranked netminder in the league, shut out Cortland as they took 23 shots on net. 6-0 loss.
The Red Dragons head into the playoffs on March 5th as the 7th seeded team in the ECRHA. They will play the second seed Loyola, third seed Delaware, and the sixth seed UMass-Amherst in their round robin pool. A third place or better finish in the pool with qualify the Red Dragons for the quarterfinals. The regular season is over as Cortland begins to prepare for their playoff run.
