PLATTSBURGH — Games will now take on even more importance for the Plattsburgh State men’s hockey team.
The Cardinals (8-7-1, 3-3) return to SUNYAC play Wednesday, hosting Potsdam at the Stafford Ice Arena.
At home this past weekend against non-conference opponents, the Cardinals skated to a 2-1 overtime win over Middlebury College on Friday before dropping a 5-4 decision to Williams College on Saturday.
Plattsburgh has nine regular season games remaining and eight of those are against SUNYAC teams.
“We have over half our SUNYAC schedule remaining,” Plattsburgh head coach Steve Moffat said. “It’s great we can come back that quickly (after a loss) and play Wednesday against a big rival.”
The Cardinals failed to make the NCAA Division III Tournament a season ago as an at-large team despite having only five losses.
They have seven losses at this point and most likely the only way they get in this season is by winning the conference tournament.
They will look to improve on their current 3-3 record in conference play the rest of the way to get a higher seeding come the SUNYAC tourney.
PLATTSBURGH 2
MIDDLEBURY 1
Aaron Catron’s goal at 1:23 of overtime lifted the Cardinals past the Panthers in a well-played game.
Tyler Ramm’s power-play goal at 1:18 of the third broke a scoreless tie and put Plattsburgh in front. But with 3:40 left in regulation, Dimitri Tzaferis’ goal forced overtime for Middlebury.
Middlebury had a great chance to win it at the start of overtime on a breakaway, but was denied.
“(Jake) Lanyi came back hard on the play and helped out there,” Moffat said.
Jacob Hearne made 15 saves on 16 Middlebury shots in net for the Cardinals to get the win.
“It was a good game,” Moffat said. “We were able to limit their shots on goal and played smart much of the time. We were able to keep the puck in front of us. Our special teams played well and that goes a long way to having success.
“I would have liked to have seen us drive to the net more and get traffic in front with or without the puck. I felt we stopped skating on their goal. But I’m probably nitpicking some.”
WILLIAMS 5
PLATTSBURGH 4
The Cardinals had a real bad start to the game as defensive miscues helped the Ephs take a 4-2 advantage after one, with Patrick Cole scoring the two Plattsburgh goals.
“We had too many turnovers and bad defensive zone coverage,” Moffat said.
“We had two turnovers at the start and they scored their first two goals on exactly the same type of play. We can’t afford to give up easy goals like that.”
Eli Shiller made his first start in net since November 15 at Oswego, but Hearne took over for him after Williams made it a 3-0 game 12:59 into the opening period.
“I was trying to get the guys going on the bench early on,” Moffat said. “I made the goalie change because we had to do something.”
Hearne would later make a couple of key saves to help keep the Cardinals within striking distance.
Vlad Pshenichnikov’s first goal as a Cardinal, a power-play goal at 11:39 of the second, brought Plattsburgh to within 4-3.
Plattsburgh came out strong in the third, but the Ephs made it 5-3 on William Yee’s goal at 7:01.
Cole, who had only one goal on the season coming in, completed his hat trick at 12:36 to pull Plattsburgh back to within a goal once again.
Plattsburgh appeared to tie the game with 3:09 remaining in regulation, but the officials got together and the goal was disallowed because of an offsides call.
“We had a slow start to the game for sure,” Moffat said. “But the guys showed a lot of character and grit. The guys didn’t quit at all.
“It was Hockey Fights Cancer weekend and we had a good turnout. It’s nice to give back to the community.”
Following Wednesday’s conference home game against Potsdam, the Cardinals close out their non-conference schedule Saturday at Amherst College. After that, it’s seven SUNYAC games in a row.
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Friday
Plattsburgh 2, Middlebury 1, OT
Midd;0;0;1;0;—;1
PSU;0;0;1;1;—;2
Third period- 1, PSU, Ramm ppg (Bellina, Weaver-Vitale), 1:18. 2, Midd, Tzaferis (Pastor, Morehouse), 16:20.
Overtime- 3, PSU, Catron (Weaver-Vitale, Pschenichnikov), 1:23.
Shots on goal- PSU, 35-16.
Saves- Heinze, Midd, 33, Hearne, PSU, 15.
—
Saturday
Williams 5, Plattsburgh 4
WC;4;0;1;—;5
PSU;2;1;1;—;4
First period- 1, WC, Berg (McManus, Chen), 6:53. 2, WC, Vieten, 8:04. 3, WC, Mortarelli, 12:59. 4, PSU, Cole ppg (Ring, Sacratini), 15:31. 5, PSU, Cole (Spencer-Ha), 16:25. 6, WC, Corkery (N. Heithoff, R. Heithoff), 18:24.
Second period- 7, PSU, Pshenichnikov ppg (Ring, Sacratini), 11:39.
Third period- 8, WC, Yee (N. Heithoff), 7:01. 9, PSU, Cole (Sutherland, Spencer-Ha), 12:36.
Shots on goal- PSU, 30-24.
Saves- Sandquist, WC, 26. Shiller (4), Hearne (15), PSU, 19.