At the beginning of the season, head coach Chris Garafalo believed his team was a contender for the Athletic Collegiate Hockey Association national championship.
Now, the team’s streak of 11 consecutive appearances at the national tournament may be in jeopardy.
“At this point, I’m not even sure we’ll qualify for nationals,” Garafalo said. “Right now, it doesn’t look like we’ll be ranked high enough.”
After Sunday night’s 2-1 shootout loss to Rutgers, the team has an overall record of 12-11-2, having won only two of their last seven games.
Recent addition Vincent Lopes scored the lone goal for the Seawolves at the 3:42 mark of the first period. However, Rutgers’ Brett Siegrist tied the game at the 12:58 mark of the second period.
After a scoreless third period, and overtime, Rutgers goalie Brandon DeLibero stopped Stony Brook’s Bryan Elfant in the final attempt to seal the win.
“We just underachieved, as we have done the whole season,” Garafalo said. “We didn’t play a full sixty minutes of hockey, we missed our opportunities and couldn’t capitalize when we had the chances.”
Stony Brook appeared to score only eight seconds into overtime after a scramble in front of the  Rutgers net.
However, the referees ruled that the net was moved off it’s moorings before the puck went in after conferring with each other.
“That should of counted,” Garafalo said. “But it didn’t, you have to move past it. I thought we could of gotten them on the shootout, but it just wasn’t our day.”
In conference play, Stony Brook is fourth in the Eastern States Collegiate Hockey League with a 4-7-1 record.
“We didn’t play to our maximum potential,” Garafalo said. “We’ve had some injuries that have really killed us.”
Wes Hawkins (ankle) and Mike Caciotti (shoulder), who are third and fourth on the team in points respectively, are both done for the year.
The team is also without senior defenseman Phil Borner, who left the university for financial reasons, according to Garafalo. Borner played in 113 games for Stony Brook, scoring 9 goals and 29 assists in four seasons.
“We’ve struggled with injuries,” Garafalo said. “But there are plenty of guys in this locker room that can pick up the slack.”