MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — The Plattsburgh State men's hockey team is finally coming home.

The Cardinals finished off a 4-0-2 six-game road trip with Saturday's 5-3 victory over St. Thomas (Minn.) in the Annual PrimeLink Great Northern Shootout's third-place game at Kenyon Arena.

"The guys are itching to play at home," said Plattsburgh State head coach Bob Emery. "We went 4-0-2 on the road trip and that isn't bad.

"If you would have asked me before the trip if we would come back with 10 of 12 points, I wouldn't have guaranteed that."

It was also a pretty good weekend for the top-ranked Cardinals (7-0-2), who missed out on an opportunity to defend its PrimeLink title with Friday's shootout loss to Norwich. Plattsburgh State had rallied from two goals down for a 3-all tie.

"It wasn't a great weekend, but a good one," Emery said. "It was good to win this one after tying the day before. We might bring more points home (three of four) than the second-place team."

That did happen as host Middlebury edged out a 3-2 win over Norwich in the championship game.

Defenseman Ward Smith led the way against the Tommies with two goals for the Cardinals.

"Ward had all that time off because of his injury and it took him a while," Emery said. "He played well in the third period on Friday and carried it over tonight.

"But, we had a lot of guys who played well."

The Cardinals were outshot, 35-22, for one of the few times this season. Goaltender Bryan Hince, however, was solid again with 32 saves.

"I thought Hince made some great saves late in the game," Emery said. "We were able to keep their shots to the outside early, but made some mental errors late that led to some quality chances."

Following a scoreless first period, the Cardinals were able to grab a 3-2 lead after two. Kyle Kudroch, Ryan Corry and Smith scored for the Cardinals, while Ryan Kurtz and Rob Johnson tallied for the Tommies (3-4-1).

Smith's power-play goal at 18:21 broke a 2-all tie and put Plattsburgh State ahead to stay.

Smith made it 4-2 early in the third, at 3:20, before Johnson brought St. Thomas back to within a goal at the 13:08 mark. The Cardinals, however, hung on and Dylan Clarke scored into an empty net with 17 seconds left.

Hince improved his season record to 7-0-2 with his 32 saves and Sean Deichert made 17 stops for the Tommies.

The Cardinals return home to jump back into State University of New York Athletic Conference play on Friday against rival Oswego and Saturday versus Cortland.

"We're excited about seeing our fans this coming weekend," Emery said. "We have only two games left in the first semester and have to make sure we do a good job."

The Cardinals were without the services of defenseman Nick Rolls, who missed the PrimeLink due to an injury. Emery said Rolls is day-to-day, but still a longshot to play this coming weekend.

Middlebury 3
Norwich 2

Mason Graddock's power-play goal with 2:51 left in the third period broke a 2-all tie and gave the host Panthers (4-0) the tournament title.

John Sullivan and Jamie McKenna also scored for Middlebury, which held a 2-0 lead in the game at one time.

Nick DelGallo and Nikita Kashirsky tallied for the Cadets (2-1-1), with Kashirsky's power-play goal at 9:14 of the third period tying the game at 2-all.

Tournament Most Valuable Player Doug Raeder made 17 saves for Middlebury, which had to kill off a five-minute major in the second period while holding on to a 2-1 lead.

Ryan Klingensmith finished with 24 stops in goal for Norwich.

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Championship

Middlebury 3, Norwich 2

Score by periods:

Norwich 0 1 1 — 2

Middlebury 1 1 1 — 3

First period- 1, Midd, Sullivan, 1:19. Penalties- Eskedjian, Nor (hooking), 5:49. McKenna, Midd (hooking), 13:53. Strauss, Midd (tripping), 16:03. Strauss, Midd (charging), 19:18.

Second period- 2, Midd, McKenna ppg (Svoboda, Drolet), 3:05. 3, Nor, DelGallo (Anderson, Kasper), 4:25. Penalties- Coon, Nor (hooking), 2:54. Donahue, Midd (interference), 6:08. Sullivan, Midd (five-minute major, hitting from behind, game misconduct), 13:57.

Third period- 4, Nor, Kashirsky ppg (Coon, Fimiani), 9:14. 5, Midd, Graddock ppg (Donahoe, Cummins), 17:09. Penalties- Coon, Nor (interference), :55. Curran, Midd (tripping), 7:50. Coon, Nor (charging), 10:36. Piatelli, Nor (roughing), 15:21.

Shots on goal:

Norwich 4 8 7 — 19

Middlebury 12 5 10 — 27

Goaltenders (shots-saves): Klingensmith, Nor, 27-24. Raeder, Midd, 19-17.

Powerplays (goals-opportunities): Norwich, 1-6. Middlebury, 2-5.

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Third-place game

Plattsburgh 5, St. Thomas 3

Score by periods:

Plattsburgh 0 3 2 — 5

St. Thomas 0 2 1 — 3

First period- no scoring. Penalties- Kranz, ST (tripping), 6:04. Clarke, PSU (slashing), 6:25. Kranz, ST (hooking), 8:14.

Second period- 1, ST, Kurtz (Coles), 3:05. 2, PSU, Kudroch (Dennis), 3:26. 3, PSU, Corry (Clarke, Satim), 15:03. 4, ST, Johnson (Bryant, Davis), 16:17. 5, PSU, Smith ppg (Satim, Clarke), 18:21. Penalties- Satim, PSU (slashing), 5:32. Bryant, ST (tripping), 18:06.

Third period- 6, PSU, Smith (John, Kudroch), 3:20. 7, ST, Johnson ppg (Knutson, Kappers), 13:08. 8, PSU, Clarke eng (Corry), 19:43. Penalties- Willock, PSU (interference), 10:29. Hince, PSU (slashing), 12:21. Kappers, ST (slashing), 14:24. Burgess, ST (high-sticking), 20:00.

Shots on goal:

Plattsburgh 7 8 7 — 22

St. Thomas 9 15 11 — 35

Goaltenders (shots-saves): Hince, PSU, 35-32. Deichert, ST, 21-17.

Powerplays (goals-opportunities): Plattsburgh, 1-4. St. Thomas, 1-4.