Congratulations to former Minutemen Dean Stork and Will Ortiz who were part of the ECHL championship run for the Cincinnati Cyclones, the former as an assistant coach and the latter as a rookie player.  The championship is the 2nd for the Cyclones in the last three years with Stork being a part of both.  Amazingly with the seven game series in the playoff semifinals Storker, who had an extensive minor league playing career, has now been part of 8 of the 21 Game 7’s in ECHL history.  The Cyclones came back from being down 0-3 to the Reading Royals to move onto the finals against the Idaho Steelheads.

Ortiz joined Cincinnati following his UMass season.  He played in about half of Cincy’s playoff games and recorded an assist in Game 3 of the championship series.  All in all he had a goal and 5 assists in 12 playoff games.  His lone goal was the game winner to force Game 7 in the semis. 

You can see some pictures of Stork and Ortiz enjoying the victory on the Cyclones Facebook page.

It’s great to see both of them succeeding.  I also am glad to see former UMass players begin to make strides in the coaching profession, which can only help the program in the long run.  Hopefully assisting on two championships in the last three years will likely mean Stork will be moving on to greater opportunities in the coaching world.  He was a great captain when he was on campus, it doesn’t surprise me to see him doing so well behind the bench as well.

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A bit late, but for here are the award winners announced in April’s Award Banquet:

Rookie of the Year Award: Rocco Carzo
Minuteman Spirit Award: Brett Watson
Jack Canniff Unsung Hero Award: Brett Watson
Most Improved Player Award: Mike Marcou & Will Ortiz
Most Valuable Player Award: Justin Braun & James Marcou

No complaints from me.

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Though it’s the offseason, remember to keep checking Fear The Triangle as I’ll be updating the site with any organizational or recruiting news as it becomes available.  Something tells me we’re not done on either front.

In the meantime, there are only a few weeks left to register for this year’s Pond Club Golf Tournament.