Cardinals blank Morrisville

By JOHN CORYER
Staff Writer

February 01, 2009 04:00 am

— PLATTSBURGH -- It took Plattsburgh State 9:47 into the third period to get its second goal of the game Saturday night against Morrisville.
But, then the floodgates opened.
Dylan Clarke scored two goals and added an assist while Chris Molinaro recorded the shutout in net as the Cardinals skated to a 5-0 State University of New York Athletic Conference win over the Mustangs at the Stafford Ice Arena.
Top-ranked Plattsburgh State improved to 10-0-1 in the conference and 16-1-2 overall, heading into Monday's non-conference home game against Williams College.
"We played well for 60 minutes tonight," said Plattsburgh State head coach Bob Emery. "You have to be able to win those 1-0 games if you have to. And, tonight, I felt we could have won, 1-0, if it came to that.
"Morrisville came in with a good gameplan. But, we possessed the puck as well as we have all season and defense wins games. It all starts with team defense and we played good team defense."
Still, all the Cardinals had to show for the first two periods, despite a 20-7 advantage in shots on goal, was a 1-0 lead.
That came at 15:30 of the first period on the powerplay when defenseman Mike Kavanagh's slapshot from straight on beat Mustangs' goaltender Caylin Relkoff.
But, that would be the only goal Relkoff would allow until Riley Hill made it 2-0 at 9:47 of the third. Hill, on a Plattsburgh State powerplay, jumped on a loose puck down low and scored.
Then, it was Clarke on a rebound at 13:01, Phil Farrow a power-play goal off a nice passing play with Joey Wilson and Nick Rolls at 16:24 and Clarke, after taking a centering pass from Eric Satim in front, at 18:45. Satim assisted on three of Plattsburgh State's goals.
The Cardinals went three-for-five on the powerplay and were whistled for just one penalty.
"When you possess the puck as much as we did tonight, that allows you to not take penalties," Emery said.
Molinaro, a senior playing his second game of the season in net, stopped all 15 shots. Relkoff made 32 saves for the Mustangs (5-15-1, 1-10-1), who were outshot by a 37-15 margin.
"It's great for Chris Molinaro to get the shutout," Emery said. "I can't say enough positive things about him."
Monday night's game against Williams College begins at 7 p.m.
--
Plattsburgh State 5, Morrisville 0
Score by periods:
Morrisville 0 0 0 -- 0
Plattsburgh State 1 0 4 -- 5
First period- 1, PSU, Kavanagh ppg (Clarke, Satim), 15:30. Penalties- Dorak, Morr (hooking), 14:36.
Second period- no scoring. Penalties- Roberts, Morr (hooking), 18:39.
Third period- 2, PSU, Hill ppg (Farrow, Corry), 9:47. 3, PSU, Clarke (Taylor, Satim), 13:01. 4, PSU, Farrow ppg (Wilson, Rolls), 16:24. 5, PSU, Clarke (Satim), 18:45. Penalties- Sgarbossa, Morr (tripping), 1:44. Alarie, Morr (tripping), 7:56. VanderMale, PSU (holding), 10:15. Quinn, Morr (tripping), 15:22.
Shots on goal:
Morrisville 3 4 8 -- 15
Plattsburgh State 10 10 17 -- 37
Goaltenders (shots-saves): Relkoff, Morr, 37-32. Molinaro, PSU, 15-15.
Powerplays (goals-opportunities): Morrisville, 0-1. Morrisville, 3-5.
Attendance: 1782.

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