PLATTSBURGH — As the SUNYAC men’s hockey regular season winds near a close, the games take on even more importance for Plattsburgh State.
The Cardinals (16-3-2, 9-2-1) have a difficult weekend ahead of them on the road, at Cortland tonight and at Oswego on Saturday night.
“There’s a lot at stake,” Plattsburgh head coach Steve Moffat said. “Oswego is just ahead of us in the standings and Cortland just behind us. It’s an immense weekend for us.”
Plattsburgh took care of business this past Saturday when Luk Jirousek’s late third-period goal was the game-winner in a 4-2 victory at Potsdam.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, however, first-place Geneseo also did what it needed to do by scoring a goal in the final minute to edge Cortland, 3-2, on Friday and then skating to a surprisingly one-sided 7-1 win at Oswego on Saturday.
The updated SUNYAC standings has Geneseo (11-2) at the top, followed by Oswego (10-3), Plattsburgh (9-2-1) and Cortland (8-4-1). Plattsburgh has a game in hand over Oswego.
For Plattsburgh to win the SUNYAC regular season title, it would have to win its four remaining games — at Cortland and Oswego this weekend and home against Buffalo State and Fredonia next weekend.
Meanwhile, Geneseo would need to suffer a loss or a tie in one of its three remaining SUNYAC games versus either Fredonia, Buffalo State and Morrisville.
“We have to control what we do,” Moffat said. “We have to worry about the Cortland game first and take it one game at a time.
“We have to be mentally and physically prepared and take care of business. And everything else will take care of itself.”
Oswego and Cortland will play in the final regular season game for both teams.
The Red Dragons, despite a 6-1 loss in Plattsburgh on December 1, are an improved program.
“Cortland has been great,” Moffat said. “They create turnovers and are excellent in the transition game.
“They’re a skating team like us and they score goals. They are good on the power play. It should be a fun game.”
Moffat was pleased with his team against Potsdam.
“I was pleased with our effort,” he said. “We played a great first period (19-3 shots on goal advantage), but were behind 1-0.
“I thought we were able to show outstanding resiliency when they tied it at 2. It woke us up and we had some good chances to score. I felt good for Luk getting the go-ahead goal for us. He has played hard all season.”
As for Oswego, the Lakers skated to a 5-3 victory over the Cardinals on December 2 at the Stafford Ice Arena, handing Plattsburgh one of its two losses thus far in the conference.
The Cardinals are currently ranked No. 4 in the USCHO Division III poll.