The 2023-2024 installment of the NYU Hockey program wrapped up a successful campaign with a home-and-home series against Stony Brook University last weekend. The Violets dropped the first half of the weekend series 4-3 on Friday night after leading the game 3-1. Goals were scored in the loss by Tommy He ‘24 (Beijing, China), James Orne ‘24 (Camden, ME), and Alex Svoboda ‘27 (Teplice, Czechia). Tommy He and James Luo ‘27 (Beijing, China) each had a team-best +1 rating in the loss. Adam Svoboda ‘24 (Teplice, Czechia) and Frank Tsiouvaras ‘26 (Nashville, TN) each added two assists.
Saturday night, the team traveled to Hauppauge, NY, looking to end their season with a win. After going down 1-0 just six minutes into the game, the Violets never looked back en route to a hard-fought 3-1 victory against a talented Stony Brook squad. Playing together for most of the night, Videep Vemulapalli ‘24 (Longmeadow, MA) notched one assist, Stellios Bizekis ‘26 (Great Neck, NY) tallied one goal and one assist, and Charlie Gardephe ‘27 (Brooklyn, NY) sunk the game-winning goal. Each of the three also finished with a team-best +2 rating on the night. Jackson Oleson ‘24 (Stateline, NV) added a powerplay goal. Alex Svoboda and Josh Stich ‘24 (Atlanta, GA) each had one assist in the win. Bryan Cook ‘27 (Endwell, NY) and Joe Solovey ‘24 (Holmdel, NJ) both played critical minutes down the stretch. Goaltender Chris Cataldo ‘24 (Norfolk, MA) was undisputedly the player of the game, turning aside 36 of the 37 shots he faced.
Your New York University Violets finished the season with an 11-7-4 overall record. The season started with NYU debuting at #17 in the ACHA Men’s Division 1 national poll. This ranking was the highest in school history since moving from ACHA D2 to D1. The team’s winning percentage of .591 was the highest since the program’s first season in ACHA Men’s Divison 1 in 2017-2018. The Violets finished with the second-highest regular season power play percentage in the ESCHL and 18th-best in the country out of 72 teams. All three senior goaltenders finished the season with winning percentages above .500, and the team’s Fall 2023 semester average team GPA was an impressive 3.64.
NOTES:
Earlier this season, Jackson Oleson became NYU’s all-time leading scorer for defensemen at the ACHA Division 1 level. Additionally, James Orne became the university’s all-time leader in games played at the ACHA Division 1 level. Both Oleson and Orne served as assistant captains on the 2023-2024 squad. Team captain Adam Svoboda finished his career as the university’s all-time assists leader and is tied with MacLean Brice ‘23 (Bloomfield Hills, MI) for the program’s all-time lead in points per game played (1.17 Pts/GP) at the ACHA Division 1 level. Oleson leads a talented group of returners on the 2024-2025 squad.