Cardinals beat Bengals

By JOHN CORYER
Staff Writer

February 02, 2008 04:00 am

— 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.
Bryan Hince played well again in the Plattsburgh State nets, stopping 29 of 31 shots, while Gunn-Taylor turned aside 30 of 35 for Buffalo State.
"I thought we were able to keep a lot of their shots to the outside, but Hince still played well," Emery said.
The Cardinals played without the services of senior forward C.J. Tozzo, who left the game with an injury in the first period.
"We lost a high-intensity player," Emery said. The extent of Tozzo's injury is not known.
Plattsburgh State will play its final home regular season game tonight at 7 p.m. against Fredonia State, which skated to a 3-2 overtime win at Potsdam State Friday night. Jeff Aonso's goal at 2:15 of overtime gave the Blue Devils the win.
In other SUNYAC games, Oswego, which nearly blew a 4-0 lead, held on for a 5-4 victory over Geneseo, and Cortland was a 4-2 winner over Cortland.
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Plattsburgh State 5, Buffalo State 2
Score by periods:
Buffalo State 0 1 1 -- 2
Plattsburgh State 2 1 2 -- 5
First period- 1, PSU, Smith ppg, 12:23. 2, PSU, Hill ppg (Farrow, Corry), 13:10. Penalties- VanDermale, PSU (interference), 4:36. Watt, BS (hitting from behind), 10:43. Petriello, BS (tripping), 12:04. King, BS (hooking), 13:00. Dennis, PSU (slashing), 16:45. Mok, BS (holding), 18:13.
Second period- 3, PSU, Cooper (Greene, VanDermale), 3:41. 4, BS, Curry ppg (Petriello), 14:16. Penalties- Ramage, BS (interference), 6:34. Burke, PSU (unsportsmanlike conduct), 12:52. Petriello, BS (unsportsmanlike conduct), 12:52. Baccaro, PSU (elbowing), 13:38. Cole, BS (tripping), 15:09. Ramage, BS (high sticking), 16:32.
Third period- 5, PSU, Schiavi (Satim, Clarke), :29. 6, PSU, Baccaro (Cooper, Rolls), 15:53. 7, BS, Kozlowski (Petriello, Cole), 15:08. Penalties- Schiavi, PSU (slashing), 3:01. Team penalty, BS (protocol violation), 3:02. Cooper, PSU (tripping), 3:55. Petriello, BS (hooking), 6:06. King, BS (boarding), 19:31.
Shots on goal:
Buffalo State 8 13 10 -- 31
Plattsburgh State 12 13 10 -- 35
Goaltenders (shots-saves): Gunn-Taylor, BS, 35-30. Hince, PSU, 31-29.
Powerplays (goals-opportunities): Buffalo State, 1-6. Plattsburgh State, 2-8.
Attendance: 997.

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