PLATTSBURGH — It’s back to business for the Plattsburgh State men’s hockey team after suffering its first loss of the season on Saturday.
Rival Oswego skated to a 5-3 victory over the Cardinals at the Stafford Ice Arena in SUNYAC play.
“There’s no reason to press the panic button,” Plattsburgh head coach Steve Moffat said. “If anyone was told at the start of the season we would be 9-1 at this time they would have been satisfied.
“We’ve had a good week of practice. It was disappointing we didn’t win, but the guys played hard.”
Plattsburgh (9-1), now ranked second to Hobart College (9-2) in the latest USCHO.com Division III poll, closes out its first semester with conference road games at Buffalo State (4-8, 2-5) on Friday night (7 p.m.) and at Fredonia State (3-7, 3-4) on Saturday (4 p.m.).
The Cardinals, who have a 5-1 record in the conference, played eight of their first 10 games of the season at home.
“Obviously, we like playing at home,” Moffat said. “But we’re looking forward to getting out on the road and spending time together as a team.
“It always a difficult road trip for us against those two teams and we have to take care of business first against Buffalo State. They always play us tough.”
Buffalo State is being led in scoring by former Northeastern Clinton Central School standout Aidan LaValley (4-6-10) and Fredonia is coming off a 4-3 victory last weekend over Brockport State.
Plattsburgh outshot Oswego, 42-26, and created a number of scoring chances. But Lakers’ goalie Cal Schell played well and the Cardinals also hurt themselves.
The Cardinals were hit with another five-minute major penalty on Saturday and Moffat addressed the penalty situation.
“We have addressed it,” he said. “But I would still rather have the five-minute penalties where we are playing hard over the foolish penalties. We had some dumb selfish penalties against Oswego.”
What did Plattsburgh learn from its first loss?
“I’m more concerned with the mental lapses like some of the foolish penalties, missing an assignment in the defensive zone or letting a goal in we shouldn’t have allowed,” Moffat said. “Mistakes like that can cost you a game.
“I know it’s a cliché and it’s been said a lot, but you have to concentrate on playing 60 minutes of hockey.”
Following this weekend, the Cardinals will be off until they host the Comfort Inn Complex Winter Classic on Jan. 5-6 with Nazareth, Albertus Magnus and Rivier in the field.