POTSDAM — Plattsburgh State men's hockey coach Bob Emery isn't a big believer in having something good come out of a tie.

But, it certainly wasn't all bad for the Cardinals Saturday night against Potsdam in State University of New York Athletic Conference play at Maxcy Hall.

The rival Bears held a 4-1 lead with less than seven minutes remaining in the third period when Plattsburgh State rallied for a 4-all overtime tie.

And, what made it even better for the Cardinals was second place Oswego's 4-2 loss to Geneseo.

"I'm not a big believer in good ties because I thought we were the better team," Emery said. "But, we were down by three goals on the road and did a good job battling back. It could have been a lot worse.

"This has always been a tough game here for us. We have to learn from this game — like we would if we would have lost. You have to learn a lot from adversity and it's back to the drawing board."

The Bears (2-3-3, 2-2-2), leading 2-1 after two periods, appeared to take control of the game when Sy Nutkevitch scored a power-play goal at 6:03 and then Steve Cornelissen an even-strength marker, shortly after, at 7:57 to make it 4-1.

The Cardinals (6-0-1, 5-0-1), however, began their comeback at 13:16 when Joey Wilson, one of the Plattsburgh State players who did come to play, made it 4-2.

Dylan Clarke then brought the Cardinals to within a goal at 17:52 and defenseman Nick Rolls forced overtime at the 18:35 mark to complete the frantic comeback.

It stayed 4-all through the five-minute overtime.

The Bears grabbed the early lead at 5:56 of the first period on Nutkevitch's first of two goals in the game.

Ryan Corry tallied a short-handed goal from Kyle Taylor to pull the Cardinals even at 5:02 of the second before the Bears regained the lead on Connor Treacy's team-leading eighth goal of the season at 13:07.

"It was one of those games," Emery said. "I could tell in the warm-ups that Potsdam had a lot of jump in their step and we were going through the motions. That made me a little worried.

"Then, they scored a goal off a bad faceoff and that gave them even more momentum. Potsdam blocked a lot of shots and we weren't getting the rebounds. That got us a little frustrated.

"We never really got it going. Some of our guys played with a lot of emotion and some didn't. We have to get everyone going at the same time."

Plattsburgh State finished with a 32-27 advantage in shots on goal, with Bryan Hince stopping 23 shots for the Cardinals and Rick Miller making 28 stops for the Bears.

The Cardinals round out their six games on the road at the Annual PrimeLink Tournament this coming weekend in Middlebury. Plattsburgh State opposes Norwich in the first round on Friday at 7 p.m.

—

Plattsburgh 4, Potsdam 4, OT

Score by periods:

Plattsburgh State 0 1 3 0 — 4

Potsdam State 1 1 2 0 — 4

First period- 1, Pots, Nutkevitch (Rhymer, Hosmer), 5:56.

Second period- 2, PSU, Corry shg (Taylor), 5:02. 3, Pots, Treacy (Voisin, Beck), 13:07.

Third period- 4, Pots, Nutkevitch ppg (F. Smith), 6:03. 5, Pots, Cornelissen (Beck, Treacy), 7:57. 6, PSU, Wilson (W. Smith, Farrow), 13:16. 7, PSU, Clarke ppg (Greene, Kavanagh), 17:52. 8, PSU, Rolls (Willock), 18:35.

Overtime- no scoring.

Shots on goal:

Plattsburgh State 9 10 10 3 — 32

Potsdam State 9 9 7 2 — 27

Goaltenders (shots-saves): Hince, PSU, 27-23. Miller, Pots, 32-28.

Powerplays (goals-opportunities): Plattsburgh, 1-9. Potsdam, 1-7.

Attendance: 868.