PLATTSBURGH -- The Plattsburgh State men's hockey team continued to Roll along Tuesday night.

Defenseman Nick Rolls scored three goals and the Cardinals skated to an 8-1 non-conference victory over Skidmore College at the Stafford Ice Arena.

But, not all was good for Plattsburgh State, which is now 16-2 overall.

"There was positives and negatives that came out of the game," said Plattsburgh State head coach Bob Emery. "We played sloppy at times and had some real nice plays other times."

The Cardinals jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Kyle VanDermale at 12:43 and then Dylan Clarke on the powerplay at 17:03.

Still, Emery wasn't pleased with some of the Cardinals' play in the period.

"We turned the puck over way too many times, especially in the first period," he said. "(Bryan) Hince had to make some good saves.

"We're still not playing great hockey at the moment. We can't afford those types of mistakes against a team like Oswego -- and we need to get better as a unit."

Rolls gave the Cardinals a 3-0 lead with 41 seconds gone in the second period before Anthony Ferri put Skidmore (3-8-2) on the scoreboard with a power-play goal at the 3:19 mark.

Plattsburgh State, however, then began to break it open on goals by Joey Wilson at 5:58 and Rolls a power-play marker at 10:14.

Rolls finished off his three-goal performance at 8:22 of the third with his second power-play tally.

The Cardinals then closed out their scoring with a rare two short-handed goals on one Skidmore powerplay. It was T.J. Cooper at 14:46 and C.J. Tozzo a minute later, at the 15:52 mark.

"Our penalty kill and powerplay were good tonight," Emery said. "We're trying to be more aggressive on our penalty kill.

"Rolls has been struggling on the powerplay and we had a talk today. He then comes out and scores three goals, with two being on the powerplay."

The Cardinals went three-for-seven with a man advantage while Skidmore was one-for-five, including allowing the two goals while a skater up.