With the Buffalo Bulls men's basketball team creating a buzz on campus, the UB men's ice hockey club is hoping that in the near future they will be able to generate the same type of excitement.
The regular season is winding down for the Ice Bulls, who have one final game against Robert Morris on Saturday night before their league playoffs begin on Feb. 27.
UB is currently in the midst of a successful run in the Eastern Collegiate Hockey League, holding down second place with a 9-4-1 record. They trail first place Niagara University by only one point, but where exactly they will finish or who they will play in the playoffs is still up in the air.
"If we stay in second place, what we would do is play the third place team on Friday night, which is currently Mercyhurst college," said head coach and center Bill Mosler. "If we fall down to fourth, which is beyond our control, we would play the fifth place team, most likely Syracuse, on Thursday night."
The Bulls are led by two of the top 25 scorers in the country. Mosler, the team's leading scorer, is 19th in the country with 20 goals and 18 assists. Sean Moskal, forward, ranks 25th in the country and second on the team with 15 goals and 20 assists.
The team has shown great improvement over the last three years by increasing their win total each year, which they hoped would translate to bigger crowds at the Pepsi Center.
"We had four wins three years ago, last year we had 11, and now this year we have 14," said Mosler. "So I would say we are on the right track. We're heading into the right direction."
Another key factor was the hiring of associate head coach Matt Baumgarten. Baumgarten played Division I hockey for Clarkson and runs many player clinics around Western New York during the summer. Many say he's been a great presence for the players and other coaches.
"He's been outstanding at practice," said Mosler. "He comes with high tempo to practice. He's done an outstanding job."
Baumgarten may have earned himself a head coaching spot as a result of his play.
"We're really looking to turn the reigns over to Matt next season," said Mosler. "I'll step back a little bit and do my recruiting and help out with our General Manager duties."
Top Defenseman Ryan Donnelly also admires Baumgarten and said he loves what he brings to the team.
"He is an excellent coach and knows exactly what he is doing with us every time he touches that ice," said Donnelly.
"He's constantly thinking of things he can do for us," said Donnelly. "He is there at practice before us and thinking of new schemes. He works individually with the players and the team. Without him, I don't know where we would be."
That said, the reality remains that UB ice hockey is still a club team that no one knows about, and they're lucky if 500 people show up to a game.
But nevertheless, there are still hopes among the players to get a little bit more recognition on campus.
"This is not like a club where we just get a bunch of guys out and we go run and play ice hockey," said Donnelly. "We are very structured. We have a general manager in Pat Riley who deals with a lot of our road trips and we have great coaching."
"We have a lot of players who have either played juniors in Canada, went to prep school, went to a Division III team but all decided to come back to school in Buffalo," said Donnelly. "I would like to say we are more than a club talent wise. But we are held back with the obligations that we have to fulfill with SA and everything that goes along with being a club."
Besides not being recognized as one of the big teams in the school, there are other drawbacks, and of course there is that one thing you need a lot of to run a smooth program: Money.
"The cost of the program is prohibitive," said Mosler. "It costs the guys anywhere to the high hundreds of dollars on top of tuition, room and board, travel, etc. It becomes pricey and we lose some players because of that."
Despite all the money trouble the club has, it was probably the least of their worries considering the lack of fan support and the hostile territories that the team has encountered.
"When we were at Penn State this season, they had at least 4,000 people in the stands," said Donnelly. "They were heckling us; they had their cheers down. It's intimidating to go to a house like that and win against a ranked team."
But when the scene shifts back to the Amherst Center, it's a lot different for UB.
"We have our friends, family, and the occasional people from the school," said Donnelly. "But we put a product on the ice that a lot of people like to see. Hard hitting and fast paced."
The players say that the fact they have to advertise for their games and make sure people come is very frustrating. That is why these hockey players hope they won't have to do that sometime in the future.
It all starts next Thursday through Saturday as UB tries to makes its way through the ECHL playoffs and capture the title of the league, which will be held in Rochester. After that it could be on to Ames, Iowa where the ACHA Division I National Championship is set to take place from March 3-7.
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
