Buffalo State men’s hockey coach Steve Murphy has named is 2018-19 team captains, announcing Vadim Vasjonkin (Tallin, Estonia) will wear the “C”, while Mac Wood (Simcoe, ON/SCS), Anthony Passero (Fort Erie, ON/Lakeshore) and Cody Symonds (Woodbridge, ON/Emily Carr) will all serve as assistant captains.
Vasjonkin, a forward and sophomore to-be, tallied 24 points in 27 games during his freshman campaign, including nine goals and 15 assists. He netted a pair of goals and had an assist in the Bengals’ 4-3 playoff victory over Potsdam. Last month Vasjonkin represented his home country of Estonia in the IIHF Division I Group B World Championships in Lithuania where his team earned a bronze medal going 3-1-1 and he finished the tournament with a goal and an assist and a plus-1 rating.
Wood will wear an “A” for his senior season. The forward was the Bengals’ leading goal-scorer a year ago with 13 and has found the back of the net 32 times in 74 career games and has 54 total points. He has 14 power-play goals and has a plus-19 rating for his career.
Passero will wear “a letter” for the second-consecutive season. He has led the Bengals in scoring in each of his first two seasons with the club, tallying 57 points on 16 goals and 41 assists in 53 career games. He was a third team All-SUNYAC selection this past season and has a plus-16 rating through two years. Passero had just one minor penalty in 2017-18.
Symonds will complete the Bengals’ leadership corps. He produced 16 points on four goals and 12 assists from the blue line during his freshman campaign in 2017-18 and had a plus-10 rating. Symonds also had just eight penalty minutes, playing all 27 games.
Buffalo State finished one win shy of a school record last season, finishing 17-7-3, and advanced to the SUNYAC semifinals for the seventh-straight year.
