The Hamilton Continentals will play their third straight SUNYAC opponent tonight when they visit the Oswego State for a 7 p.m. men's ice hockey face off. A season ago, the Lakers made the trip to the age-old Russell Sage Rink to and dominated a lowly, one-win Hamilton squad. But a lot has changed in the 364 days since that 5-1 drubbing.For starters, Phil Grady resigned after 24 years, 304 wins, and 18 postseasons behind the Continental bench. He was replaced by Norm Bazin, a 37-year-old graduate of UMass-Lowell. Bazin brought with him a solid resume' filled with division one experience; he had been an assistant at Colorado College for eight seasons.
Bazin's Hamilton squad has won four of their first seven games this season. They even earned a tie at the always-tough atmopsphere of the Utica Auditorium. After getting outscored by an average of 4.13-2.46 last year, the Conts have improved a both ends of the ice and own a 3.71-2.86 goals per game edge over the opposition.Discipline is one area where Hamilton has dipped slightly - right around 20 penalty minutes a contest this season as opposed to 18 in 2007-08 - but the penalty kill unit has come through nearly 9 out of 10 times. The man advnatge has been just as friendly to Hamilton, as they score at a clip of 24 percent. Last year, the Conts scored just 27 power play goals on 163 opportunities on their way to a record of 5-18-1, the highest loss total in the program's 90-year history.
Bazin is just the fourth man to serve as Hamilton's bench boss. Tonight he'll look to become the first Conts coach to earn a win in the Campus Center Ice Arena. In doing so, Hamilton would end a nine-year winless streat against the Lakers.
Ryan Maloney
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