In the world of sports, nothing fuels a team quite like unexpected defeat. Stony Brook’s hockey team experienced just that last season when they fell to the Liberty University Flames in the Eastern States Collegiate Hockey League Championship, ending the Seawolves’ four-year conference title streak. With the 2017-18 season just around the corner, getting back to the top is on everyone’s mind.

A persistent forecheck led the way for a pair of season-opening Stony Brook victories at The Rinx in Hauppauge over the weekend, where the ice hockey team topped Rhode Island.

In recent years the Stony Brook hockey club has always had players who could provide scoring. But, this year it is the team’s improved defensive unit that seems to have taken the program to the next level.