PLATTSBURGH -- The Plattsburgh State men's hockey team continued its push for the State University of New York Athletic Conference regular season championship Friday night at the Stafford Ice Arena.

Ward Smith and Riley Hill scored five-on-three power-play goals midway through the opening period and the Cardinals (19-2, 12-0) skated to a 5-2 victory over Buffalo State.

Coaches, however, always look for improvement and the Cardinals' Bob Emery didn't have to look far.

"I'm really happy to win -- it's great to win," Emery said. "No doubt, Buffalo State is the most improved team in our conference.

"But, you always look for ways to improve and we need to get better in our own end. Giving up 31 shots on goal is way too many.

"And, we didn't get the puck in deep as much as I would have liked. That comes from a lack of self discipline."

The Bengals (9-9-3, 4-5-3) stayed with the Cardinals for the first half of the opening period.

But, Buffalo State then ran into penalty problems and Plattsburgh State took advantage while skating two men up.

Defenseman Smith opened the scoring at 12:23 when he came in from the right side and slipped the puck past Bengals goaltender Kyle Gunn-Taylor from close range.

Then, at 13:10, Hill took a centering pass between the slots and went up top to beat Gunn-Taylor and give the Cardinals a 2-0 advantage.

"We were opportunistic," said Emery. "We played pretty well on the powerplay."

Plattsburgh State improved its lead to 3-0 early on in the second period, at 3:41, when T.J. Cooper drilled home a rebound.

The Bengals, however, got on the scoreboard with a power-play goal at 14:16 when Joe Curry scored on a slapshot from the slot.

But, any thoughts for a Buffalo State comeback were dashed just 29 seconds into the third when Mike Schiavi tallied from in close off a great three-on-one passing play that featured Eric Satim and Dylan Clarke.

Mike Baccaro gave the Cardinals a 5-1 advantage at 15:53 before Kevin Kozlowski added the Bengals' second goal of the game shortly after, at 16:08.