ELMIRA, N.Y. -- Senior goalie
Sal Magliocco '17 of the men's ice hockey team and junior forward
Meghan Fonfara '18 of the No. 2-ranked women's ice hockey team have been named the first Elmira College Athletes of the Week of the New Year.
It had been nearly two full months since Magliocco took the ice for the Soaring Eagles, but the senior netminder excelled for Elmira in his first two games back from injury. He guided EC to a 1-0-1 week against a pair of State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) rivals, as he earned the victory between the pipes in the home bout against SUNY Cortland, while posting a season-high save total in an overtime draw with No. 6/7 SUNY Geneseo.
In Friday's 6-3 triumph over the Red Dragons at the Murray Athletic Center, Magliocco turned aside 31 shots, including 12 in the second period and 13 more in the third to preserve the win. The following night, the Roslyn, New York, native was up to the task with perhaps his best performance of the season on the road against nationally-ranked Geneseo. Not only did Magliocco limit the nation's second-leading offense to a pair of goals, but in doing so, the fourth-year goaltender made a season-high 44 saves. He recorded 20 of those stops in the third period and overtime session, and was once again a wall on the penalty kill, as he made a dozen stops with his team a man down.
With a combined 75 saves on the weekend, Magliocco has climbed the program's all-time leaderboard and now ranks seventh in career saves with 1,606, surpassing Gerard Muscat '90 (1,603) and two-time All-American Darren McDonald '13 (1,602).
Magliocco and the men's ice hockey team will continue non-conference play with a pair of home contests against Curry College and No. 13 Salve Regina University on Friday, January 13th, and Saturday, January 14th, respectively. Both games are scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. at the Murray Athletic Center.
Fonfara turned in her best performance of the season with a season-high three points on Sunday against No. 5/4 Adrian College at the Seventh Annual East-West Hockey Classic, hosted by Norwich University. As a result, she earned a spot on the East-West All-Tournament Team. The product of Elma, New York, had a hand in all three of Elmira's goals against the Bulldogs, as she tallied twice in addition to one assist.
Both of Fonfara's goals were scored in the final minutes of the first and third periods. Her first came at the 17:21 mark of the opening period, while the latter was recorded at the 17:16 mark of the third stanza. Sandwiched in between her scores was an assist on a second-period goal from
Maddie Evangelous '19.
The career-high-tying three-point effort against the Bulldogs snapped Fonfara's three-game streak without a point and a six-game scoreless streak. On the season, she sits in a two-way tie for the team lead and 11th in the ECAC West Conference with six goals.
The nationally-ranked women's ice hockey team will return to action with a home-and-home series this weekend against ECAC West foe SUNY Cortland. The two-game set will begin in Cortland, New York, on Friday, January 13th, at 7:00 p.m. The following afternoon at 3:00 p.m., the Soaring Eagles host the Red Dragons at the MAC.
