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Syracuse Hockey Back For Revenge Syracuse Hockey Back For Revenge

By Dana Grey

REPORTER: The 2017-2018 Syracuse men’s hockey season was soaring, until it came to a violent stop.
JAMES: I’ve never been around a group of guys that had as much character, as much energy, as much liveliness of this group. They bring it every single day, every single game they make our jobs a lot of fun. So to see what happened, it was frankly, it was astonishing, I still can’t believe it happened.
REPORTER: In the late stages of this past January the Orange took a weekend road-trip down to New York City to take on division rival NYU. After losing for the second straight night and on this particular occasion, in heartbreaking overtime fashion, this altercation was caught on tape as the Syracuse Orange players were waling past NYU fans on their way to the locker room. The video went viral. Thousands of views within hours, millions of views within days. If anyone at Syracuse University didn’t know there was a men’s hockey team they did now. Though for the team’s PR Director Caroline Davis, this was not the publicity she was hoping for.
CAROLINE: I received word that there was actually many different video footages on people’s smartphones of this incident. So that’s like a PR Director’s biggest nightmare.
REPORTER: The team was suspended by the university for the rest of the year and was forced to forfeit their remaining games. But with a new coaching staff and reinstatement by the school, the team is feeling…
JOEY: Super fired up to get going and having a full season this year and really proving to the whole ACHA, ESCHL what we are made up because we kind of got cut off short last year. We didn’t get the chance to prove ourselves and show what and what Syracuse hockey is all about.
REPORTER: Dana Grey… NCC News.

By Dana Grey SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – There are thousands of students who attend Syracuse University, but not many may have known about their school’s men’s hockey team before last January. This past winter during a road-trip to New York University, SU men’s hockey got the publicity it had been waiting for, unfortunately for the wrong reasons.

After losing to NYU for the second straight night in overtime, Syracuse players filed off of the ice surface and made their way to the visitor’s locker room. Waiting for them, was a wall of violet fans, a majority of whom were intoxicated. Words were exchanged and before long, the two groups were in an all out brawl. Drunk fans fighting players still in uniform.

The altercation was caught on camera from a bystander and was sent to a variety of social media blogs. Just a clip of six seconds that showed one of the Orange players punching a fan was enough for the Syracuse administration to crack down. The team was suspended for the remainder of the season and had to cancel their remaining games and hopes of playoffs.

Now with this year underway and brand new coaches, the Orange is trending in the right direction and with a few more fans. SU has earned a 7-4 record, but more impressively jumped up to the #13 spot in the national rankings.

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