By By Dave Diamond

STRANGE THINGS

Head coach Brian Ferrara, who took over the position for his father at the start of the season, is a little bewildered at the odd occurrences that have met the Pride in his first year.

“It’s been very uneventful,” Ferrara said sarcastically before he jokingly added, “my father had it easy.”

The newest addition to the wacky list was the postponement of Saturday night’s game against St. Thomas Aquinas due to the melting of the ice at the Long Beach Arena. Other occurrences include a brawl between Pride players and Albany fans in the arena’s parking lot after an emotional game Oct. 29. Also, the team has had its first ever trip to face Pennsylvania competition, had numerous bumps and bruises and already has more losses than the team had all last season, including the playoffs.

Two weeks ago, St. Rose University decided against making the long bus trip to Long Island since they were beaten badly here last year. However, the team only heard through a rumor that its opponents would be no-shows and instead held an intra-squad scrimmage.

ICE CHIPS

The Pride is 4-2-2 and is currently in second place in the Metropolitan Collegiate Hockey Conference (MCHC) Island Region behind SUNY Farmingdale. The Pride record does not include its 0-2 trip to Pennsylvania, where it lost both games but somehow managed to climb to 13th in the Division III American Collegiate Hockey Association in the Atlantic Region rankings. If the MCHC playoffs were to start today, the Pride would be the eighth seed.

A match-up with SUNY Farmingdale is looming Dec. 10 at Long Beach Arena. The battle will be for first place in the MCHC, a comforting spot for the Pride to be in considering it likely has not played its best hockey yet and is waiting for a few players to return from injury.