Hockey Cards host Skidmore

By JOHN CORYER
Staff Writer

January 15, 2008 04:00 am

— PLATTSBURGH -- The Plattsburgh State men's hockey team has opened the second half of its season with three wins in a row.
Cardinals' head coach Bob Emery, however, says his team still has the capability of playing better.
"We're 3-0 in the second half," he said. "But, I don't know how good Tufts is and we didn't play great against St. Scholastica or Norwich, especially in the first period. That's my concern right now -- we haven't played a great game since coming back from break.
"We have only a month left in the regular season. We wanted to get better as a team after the break and there's no better time than now in front of our fans."
The nationally-ranked Cardinals, who are 15-2 overall, close out the non-conference portion of their schedule tonight at 7 p.m. against Skidmore College at the Stafford Ice Arena.
Plattsburgh State's last game was huge 3-2 victory at Norwich University last Tuesday where the Cardinals found a way to win for the second game in a row.
"I'm not concerned about the layoff," Emery said. "It has only been a week off between games. It becomes more of a concern when you go 10 days without a game.
"Obviously, all our games are big for us. But, we are looking good right now as far as our non-league schedule is concerned."
The Cardinals are relying on a balanced offensive attack and have 11 players with 12 points or more on the season, led by freshman forward Dylan Clarke (13-9-22) and junior forward Riley Hill (11-11-22).
Freshman Bryan Hince, who played very well against Norwich, has a 12-2 record between the pipes with a goals-against-average of 1.92. Freshman Simon LeBlanc is 3-0, with a 1.88 gaa.
Skidmore is currently 3-7-2 on the season and is coming off two home losses this past weekend -- 7-3 to Williams and 6-1 to Middlebury.
Two junior defensemen -- Mike Gibbons (5-8-13) and Phil McDavitt (5-6-11) -- are leading the team in scoring, with freshman forward Alex Mykolenko (4-6-10) next.
The Thoroughbreds have played two SUNYAC teams so far on the season -- a 1-all tie with Cortland and a 4-3 win over Brockport.
The Cardinals, after tonight's game, is off before returning to SUNYAC play on Jan. 25 when they host rival Oswego.
Plattsburgh State leads the SUNYAC with a 9-0 record.
"It would be good to head back into SUNYAC play on a winning note," Emery said.
The only Plattsburgh State player not available for tonight's contest is forward Shawn Dennis, who went back to Detroit to attend to family matters.