Cardinals move closer to clinching

February 09, 2008 04:00 am

— BROCKPORT -- Despite some anxious moments Friday night, the Plattsburgh State men's hockey team is now one win away from clinching the State University of New York Athletic Conference regular season championship.
Ryan Corry's power-play goal at 4:06 of the third period lifted the Cardinals (20-3, 13-1) to a 4-2 victory over Brockport State.
"This was a big win for our program," said Plattsburgh State head coach Bob Emery. "We have a chance to bring home the championship Saturday night.
"Brockport is a pretty good team. Their record doesn't show how good they really are."
The victory was anything but easy for Plattsburgh State, despite a 46-21 shot advantage.
"Once again, we weren't paying attention to details defensively," Emery said. "(Bryan) Hince had to come up big a few times in goal for us.
"Offensively, we played great all night getting the puck in deep. But, we have to focus on getting the puck out of our zone as well as getting it deep. We had some letdowns defensively."
The Cardinals held a 2-1 lead after one and outshot the Golden Eagles by a huge 26-8 margin in the second period. Plattsburgh State, however, had nothing to show for it as the lone goal in the stanza was a power-play marker by Gordon Pritchard that tied the game at 2-all.
"The second period was as good as we have played all year," Emery said. "Their goaltender (Todd Sheridan) played real well for them.
"You have to try and stay positive because we were taking it to them."
Corry gave the Cardinals the lead for good with his third goal of the season.
Riley Hill then added an insurance goal at 10:32 to make the Cardinals breathe a little easier.
Plattsburgh State grabbed the lead at 9:32 of the first period on Nick Rolls' goal.
Sean O'Malley tied it for Brockport at 12:51 before Hill put the Cardinals back on top, 2-1, at 18:02.
Both goaltenders were sharp as Hince stopped 19 of 21 shots in the Plattsburgh State nets and Sheridan turned aside 42 of 46 shots for Brockport (6-14-3, 3-9-2).
"We moved the puck pretty well on the powerplay," Emery said. "There were a lot of penalties in the game and that doesn't play into our hands with the depth we have."
In other SUNYAC games Friday night, Potsdam skated to a 4-1 victory at Geneseo, Oswego remained alive in the hunt for first place with a 5-2 win over Buffalo State and Fredonia rolled to an 8-2 thumping of Cortland.
The Cardinals, who have two conference games remaining on the schedule, are at Geneseo tonight.
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Plattsburgh St. 4, Brockport St. 2
Score by periods:
Plattsburgh State 2 0 2 -- 4
Brockport State 1 1 0 -- 2
First period- 1, PSU, Rolls (Willock, Wilson), 9:32. 2, Brock, O'Malley (McNab, Gershon), 12:51. 3, PSU, Hill ppg (Rolls, Corry), 18:02. Penalties- VanDermale, PSU (interference), 1:58. McNab, Brock (hooking), 8:23. VanDermale, PSU (hooking), 8:23. Carlyle, Brock (interference), 9:03. Zollars, Brock (hooking), 14:48. Marinello, Brock (tripping), 17:33. Satim, PSU (interference), 18:43.
Second period- 4, Brock, Pritchard ppg (Seedhouse, Koras), 5:11. Penalties- Zollars, Brock (holding), 1:10. Schiavi, PSU (boarding), 4:22. Tozzo, PSU (hooking), 5:11. Brown, Brock (tripping), 12:43..
Third period- 5, PSU, Corry ppg (Farrow), 4:06. 6, PSU, Hill (Cooper), 10:32. Penalties- Schott, Brock (high-sticking), 3:47. Schiavi, PSU (high-sticking), 4:36. Breslin, PSU (cross-checking), 9:54. Pritchard, Brock (boarding), 10:16. Baccaro, PSU (delay of game), 15:38. Gershon, Brock (slashing), 15:38.
Shots on goal:
Plattsburgh State 15 26 5 -- 46
Brockport State 6 8 7 -- 21
Goaltenders (shots-saves): Hince, PSU, 21-19. Sheridan, Brock, 46-42.
Powerplays (goals-opportunities): Plattsburgh State, 2-8 Brockport, 1-7.
Attendance: 300.