Cardinals ice Lakers

November 03, 2007 04:00 am

— OSWEGO -- Beating Morrisville and Potsdam is one thing.
Beating defending NCAA Division III national champion Oswego is another.
Riley Hill scored two goals, including one into an empty net, to help lead the Plattsburgh State men's hockey team to a 4-2 victory over the Lakers in State University of New York Athletic Conference play Friday night.
It marked career win No. 401 for Plattsburgh State head coach Bob Emery.
"Getting No. 401 tonight was a lot better than getting No. 400 last week," Emery said.
"It was a nice win -- I was real proud of the guys wearing red tonight. That's the way we need to play. The guys showed a lot of heart."
The Cardinals, who play at Cortland tonight, improved their conference and overall record to 4-0, while the Lakers fell to 0-1 in the conference and 0-2-1 overall.
"We can enjoy this win," Emery said. "But, tonight's win doesn't mean anything if we don't get a win tomorrow against Cortland."
Plattsburgh State scored two second-period goals for a 3-1 lead and then held off the Lakers, who got to within one in the third.
"At times, we didn't play well," Emery said. "We panicked with the puck and turned it over. When you do that, it gives the other team momentum.
"But, now we know what we need to work on when we play a good team.
"Overall, we played well and blocked a lot of shots. We did what it takes."
Hill gave the Cardinals the lead at 4:11 of the first period, but Neil Musselwhite answered for Oswego with a power-play goal at 17:34.
"We can't afford to give teams a five-on-three skating advantage," Emery said.
Defenseman Ward Smith then put the Cardinals ahead to stay with 3:39 gone in the second and freshman forward Dylan Clarke made it 3-1 at the 13:22 mark.
Ryan Ellis brought the Lakers back to within a goal with just 1:19 off the clock in the third.
Plattsburgh State, however, hung on the rest of the way and Hill sealed the win with his empty-netter with 35 seconds left.
"Nick Rolls played great on defense," Emery said. "He was on the ice for over half the game. "And, we were able to get great leadership from (C.J) Tozzo, (T.J.) Cooper and (Mike) Baccaro."
Freshman Bryan Hince improved his record to 3-0 in net with 25 saves.
Ryan Scott also turned aside 25 shots for Oswego, which was outshot by a 29-27 margin.
"It could have been a 10-9 game tonight -- there were a lot of chances for both teams," Emery said.
Oswego went one-for-six on the powerplay and the Cardinals were zero-for-five.
In other SUNYAC games Friday, Potsdam skated to a 4-2 win over Cortland, Buffalo State posted a 4-3 overtime victory over Geneseo and Fredonia was a 3-2 winner over Brockport.
--
Plattsburgh State 4, Oswego 2
Score by periods:
Plattsburgh State 1 2 1 -- 4
Oswego State 1 0 1 -- 2
First period- 1, PSU, Hill (VanDermale, Thomson), 4:11. 2, Osw, Musselwhite ppg (Magagna), 17:34. Penalties- Kitchen, Osw (boarding), 6:36. Tozzo, PSU (elbowing), 9:29. Burke, PSU (holding), 15:47. Baccaro, PSU (slashing), 17:02. Thompson, Osw (slashing), 18:58.
Second period- 3, PSU, Smith (Breslin, Satim), 3:39. 4, PSU, Clarke, PSU (Rolls, Satim), 13:22. Penalties- McCutcheon, Osw (hooking), 1:39. Greene, PSU (interference), 7:22. Levy, Osw (interference), 14:16. Kitchen, Osw (holding), 18:16.
Third period- 5, Osw, Ellis (McCutcheon, Lyon), 1:19. 6, PSU, Hill eng (Cooper), 19:25. Penalties- VanDermale, PSU (interference), 10:43. VanDermale, PSU (roughing), 13:14.
Shots on goal:
Plattsburgh State 11 10 8 -- 29
Oswego State 11 6 10 -- 27
Goaltenders (shots-saves): Hince, PSU, 27-25. Scott, Osw, 28-25.
Powerplays (goals-opportunities): Plattsburgh, 0-5. Oswego, 1-6.
Attendance: 2,712.