D1 men’s notebook: Canisius College baseball player Zurat gets ice time

Canisius College goaltender Jake Zurat closed out a win against Clarkson. (Canisius Athletics)

Jake Zurat thought he had nine more weeks until his second season at Canisius College began. After all, that’s the norm in college baseball.

The sophomore from East Amherst, N.Y., appeared in five games as a catcher for last season’s Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship-winning club, but this season has already been anything but the norm for Zurat.

The Golden Griffin hockey team has had its share of injury troubles in goal. Returning starter Daniel Urbani has yet to play this season. Blake Weyrick has seen the brunt of the action, starting 10 of the first 15 games, but sophomore Tucker Weppner (Williamsville, N.Y.) was lone healthy man remaining on the depth chart when the junior was sidelined for a few games in early November.

Second-year head coach Trevor Large was left scrambling to find an extra goaltender, and that’s where Zurat comes in. He’s been given the rare opportunity to balance time on the diamond and ice over the last month in Buffalo.

“I know Coach Trevor talks to ‘Coach Maz’ (Canisius baseball coach Matt Mazurek) a lot, so Coach Maz called to ask me if I’d have any interest in helping out the hockey team a little bit,” said Zurat, who capped his high school hockey career with a state title for Williamsville North. “I was all for it; I get to play hockey again and have some fun. I got a call from Coach Trevor later that night saying, ‘We need you. You could help us out.’ And the rest is history.”

Zurat has helped out, going from class to hockey practice to baseball practice each day. The approximate 10-minute drive between the Canisius campus and HarborCenter has become second nature and brought back “deja vu” moments from his last seasons of high school.

The majority of Zurat’s hockey work has come in practice, though he received overwhelming support ― especially from his baseball teammates ― upon taking the ice for warm-ups dressed as the third goalie for a few home games.

Zurat hadn’t skated for more than a year before his first practice with Canisius, but the local boy got a bit of in-game fame as the Griffs closed out a 6-3 win over Clarkson on Nov. 10.

The game appearance makes Zurat just the third multi-sport athlete on a Division 1 hockey roster, according to College Hockey, Inc. He joins a pair of hockey defensemen that play lacrosse in St. Lawrence freshman Mike Mahoney (Canton, N.Y.) and Army West Point senior captain Dalton MacAfee.

“That was nuts,” Zurat said. “I felt someone tap me on the shoulder, and it was Coach telling me to get ready to go in at the next whistle. I couldn’t believe it. Clarkson called timeout (and pulled its goaltender for an extra attacker), so I got a moment to collect myself and stretch a little bit. When the puck dropped, it was just about getting my body in front of the puck.”

That he did. The flow of the game and the cross-crease movements were, naturally, faster than Zurat remembered, but he was called into action and stopped all three shots he faced in his collegiate appearance that spanned 1:09.

Zurat’s return to the ice will end in a matter of days as the Griffs ready to break for the first semester and the start of baseball season comes in mid-February. The hockey team doesn’t return to game action until Dec. 28 at Union.

Manning the crease again will be a lifetime memory, but Zurat is ready to return to the playing surface on which he expected to spend all of his collegiate career.

“The first couple practices were a little rough, but I’ve seen progress going to practice every day, having fun, and trying to get better,” he said. “It’s been incredible and it was really cool to see the two teams come together for me. It’s been a great ride, but I’ve got to stick to baseball.”

Loose pucks

― Jericho, N.Y., native and Harvard defenseman Adam Fox was named Co-Player of the Month for November by the Hockey Commissioners Association, sharing the honor with Penn State’s Evan Barratt. Fox posted four goals and 11 assists during the month, including at least one point in all eight games the Crimson played.

National goaltending honors went to another ECAC product in Union’s Darion Hanson. The sophomore led the nation with a 0.97 goals against average and .972 save percentage over his three November starts.

― Quinnipiac extended its winning streak to six games with a home-and-home sweep of Princeton last weekend. The Bobcats and Notre Dame have each won six in a row, trailing only UMass (9-0-0) for the longest active streak in the country.

Defenseman Chase Priskie became the second straight ECAC Player of the Week from the Bobcats as he scored the winning goals in both games and three in total, while leading a defense that shut out the Tigers for the first time this season on Friday. Michael Lombardi earned Rookie of the Week after a one-goal, one-assist series.

― Yale is 3-0-1 in its last four games after completing a sweep at St. Lawrence and Clarkson. Sophomore Kevin O’Neil (Latham, N.Y.) ranks second on the Bulldogs with 10 points in nine games this season, including an assist on classmate Dante Palecco’s (Whippany, N.J.) game-winning goal against the Golden Knights.

― Cornell’s Austin McGrath earned his first collegiate win in just his second start with 23 saves in Saturday’s 2-1 decision at rival Harvard. McGrath started in place of the injured Matthew Galajda, who earned All-American honors in net last season.

― Derek Barach (Glenmont, N.Y.) factored into six of Mercyhurst’s eight goals in a two-game sweep of Bentley and earned Atlantic Hockey Player of the Week honors for the outburst. The senior scored a hat trick and an assist for four points in Friday’s 5-3 win.

Sacred Heart goalie Josh Benson took home Rookie of the Week honors after stopping 48 shots in two games against Robert Morris.

― Niagara’s Noah Delmas and Ludwig Stenlund were named Atlantic Hockey Player and Rookie of the Month, respectively, for their November efforts. Delmas was the league’s top-scoring defensemen with four goals and 11 points in nine games, but the junior also posted a plus-4 rating and blocked seven shots last month. Stenlund had a 3-5-8 line.

In addition, RIT sophomore Logan Drackett earned Goaltender of the Month.