Article by: Mark Jagord —
The Erie Community College hockey team beat Hudson Valley 3-1, Jan. 16, and improved its regional record to 6-1-1 on the current season. The win allowed the Kats to take any tie-breaking scenario with the Vikings as each team entered the contest with a 1-1-1 record against the other.
Just one day prior to the Kats’ 3-1 win, they fell to the Viking by that same score but in the process ended a streak that had gone on for more than three years.
The Kats had been unbeaten in region play in the prior 37 months. It had been so long ago since the Kats had dropped a region game that the team that last beat them hasn’t fielded a squad since 2014.
The unbeaten string spun more than 1100 days, but it actually was the second time this season the pesky Vikings had snapped an impressive Kat streak. Prior to the 37-month unbeaten streak, Erie had a 32-0-0, 35-month winning streak over region opponents that was also ended by Hudson Valley with a 3-3 tie, Nov. 18, 2016.
The last region loss the Kats suffered came on Dec. 11, 2013 to Monroe Community College, who at the time were the defending NJCAA National Champions. Since that loss, the Kats went 34-0-1 in region play prior to Jan. 15. During that span, they out-scored their opponents by 240 goals, while falling short of 300 total offensive tallies by just five.
To add some perspective to Erie’s 35-game region unbeaten streak, consider that the longest professional unbeaten streak is also 35 games by the 1979-80 Philadelphia Flyers.
Also along that same streak came a national championship in 2015 and a national championship runner-up trophy in 2016. All streaks eventually come to an end and with the 3-1 win against the Vikings on Jan. 16, perhaps it will be the beginning of a new one even more impressive than the last.
