A No. 1 jersey hangs next to blue stickers spelling out Syracuse on the bench in front of the empty and ready ice.

The Syracuse men’s ice hockey team remembers the former wearer of that jersey and taps his picture before taking the ice for each home game, drawing inspiration from the memory. It’s just part of the game-day ritual for the close-knit hockey club.

The jersey belonged to Richie Carlston, who would be a member of the senior class this year had he not had his life cut short by a car accident the summer after his freshman year.

“He was a very uplifting kid to be around — one of those guys in the locker room that you can’t ever replace,” said senior center Wes Rene, a captain of an SU hockey team off to one of its best starts in program history.

The memory of the former teammate lives on, contributing to the forward momentum of the team.

“I think when you are in a team environment like we are and you are playing such a competitive sport at a high level, you really grow close to every single person,” junior right wing Russell Suskind said.

Suskind, a native of Hollywood, Fla., weighed the hockey team in his choice to come to Syracuse University, as did other players on the team.

“I think Syracuse represented the perfect blend between having hockey be a part of my life and having it being a competitive aspect of my life, but also being able to really enjoy the college experience,” he said.

A member of the American Collegiate Hockey Association’s Northeast Collegiate League, Syracuse plays about 15 home games each year. The Tennity Ice Pavilion on South Campus is its primary facility.

The team works through a rigorous schedule, usually holding practices Tuesdays through Thursdays with game days and potential travel days on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

After tryouts at the beginning of the season narrow the team down to around 30, competition in practice decides the weekly-adjusted, four-line roster.

Playing to make the weekly lineup allows the players to bring the best out of each other, senior center Simon Hebert said.

“It increases the eagerness and the competitiveness of the players during practice,” Hebert said. “Overall the skill level since my freshman year has increased dramatically.”

Each season, new opponents are being added to the schedule.

“We are starting to get some of the more competitive teams in the country on our schedule because we’ve progressed tremendously throughout the past three years,” Rene said.

Rene and Hebert have seen numerous changes in the caliber of game play since joining the team.

“My sophomore year, we ended up winning our conference and it was a huge comeback game,” Hebert said. “We were down 3-0 going into the third period and we ended up winning 8-4.”

Rene agreed, adding that moment was a big stepping point for the current group, which has the goal of making it to nationals this season.

A strong start to the season was comprised of matchups against No. 16 Rhode Island and No. 25 West Chester. The then-unranked SU team took three of the four possible victories and is now ranked No. 19 in the latest ACHA Men’s Division-I rankings.

Despite the strong start, Rene and the group have taken an approach of weeding out a fixation on statistics and individual rankings, and replacing it with team values.

“I’ve tried to make it a point for mental preparation, to play every game like it’s sudden death facing elimination,” Rene said.

Going forward, the team hopes to win league games and make program history.

“It’s pretty exciting because we’ve seen the program grow from a team that used to kind of get walked over to now being a very formidable opponent, and a team that’s looking to make noise and go to nationals this year,” Suskind said.

It’s a team that would make Carlston proud. And before each home game the rest of the way, players will continue to tap the picture of Carlston and draw inspiration from the No. 1 jersey that hangs on the Syracuse bench.

Said Hebert: “His presence is always visible.”

Published on October 24, 2012 at 2:55 am

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