Buffalo State Men’s Hockey team finished with an underwhelming 9-14-2 record just a season ago and needed a change in the future. Head Coach Steve Murphy and Associate Coach Marcus Gloss spent much of their off-season recruiting players to take this team to the next level this season.
The coaching staff brought in 11 first-year student recruits for the 2024-2025 season; the most first-year students into the program in the four previous seasons under Murphy’s regime.
These young Bengals were not asked to sit right away and watch from afar while learning from the upperclassman, they were thrown right into the lineup from day one, and it’s paying dividends early on for the Buffalo States program.
Over the team’s first seven games of the regular season they are off to a hot start with a 5-2 record, which is already halfway to the team’s win total of nine from just a season ago.
Donovan Powell, the six-foot-three power forward from Wixom, MI, has been a massive spark for this Bengals squad. Powell currently is tied for the team lead in points with seven. Powell also leads the team in goals with four goals and three assists on the season.
David Tolan, the red-hot forward from LeVerne, CA, is currently on a three-goal game streak, two of which were in SUNYAC play and one of which was a game-winning goal in overtime.
The freshman has accumulated five points on the season and is looking to continue his momentum in the team’s final four games of the first semester.
Buffalo State’s three-headed monster defensively is Andrey Manov, Ethan Perrault, and Austin Micale.
All three are first-year students for Murphy’s team and play top minutes five-on-five, on the power play, and on the penalty kill. They are currently tied with each other with four points defensively, which leads the team from that position.
The Bengals are back in action this weekend at home with back-to-back 7 p.m. matchups.
They take on the Potsdam Bears on Friday and the Plattsburgh Cardinals on Saturday as they look to draw closer to their win total from a year ago.
