PLATTSBURGH — The Plattsburgh State men’s hockey team picked up where it left off in the first semester Friday night.

Riley Hill scored three goals and the Cardinals pulled away to a 9-2 victory over Tufts in the opening round of the Cardinal Classic at the Stafford Ice Arena.

Plattsburgh State (13-2 overall) plays St. Scholastica — a 3-1 winner over Trinity — in tonight’s 7 p.m. title game. Tufts and Trinity tangle in the third-place contest at 4 p.m.

“Outside of a 10-minute span in the first period where we didn’t play our style of hockey; overall, we played our style and had some nice finishes,” said Plattsburgh State head coach Bob Emery.

“We did a good job around the net and certainly were opportunistic.”

It started out well for the Jumbos (3-4-1) when Dylan Cooper scored just 41 seconds into the game.

It didn’t last long, however, when Dylan Clarke tallied shortly after, at :59, and Hill on a rebound at the 2:29 mark to put the Cardinals ahead to stay.

It stayed 2-1 until midway through the second when Eric Greene, at 10:02, and Phil Farrow, at 14:18, gave the hosts a three-goal lead after two. Farrow’s goal came off a nice passing play that also featured Shawn Dennis and Joey Wilson.

Plattsburgh State then broke it open in the third with five goals, including three in a 49-second span midway through.

Hill scored goals 18 seconds apart, while Dan Sliasis, T.J. Cooper and Tom Breslin also tallied in the period for the Cardinals.

Dylan Cooper accounted for Tufts’ second goal, which cut the Jumbos’ deficit to 8-2 at the time.

“We’re in good shape,” Emery said. “I know Tufts has some good players, but we’re deep.”

Simon LeBlanc stopped 12 of 13 shots in the first two periods between the pipes for Plattsburgh State and Chris Molinaro turned away nine of 10 in the third.

The only negative was Plattsburgh State having to kill off seven Tufts powerplays.

“I was concerned about some of the penalties we took,” Emery said. “If the players keep taking those types of penalties, they’ll sit.