Plattsburgh State is still on top of the SUNY Athletic Conference men’s hockey standings, but Geneseo now has the advantage.
David Ripple scored the go-ahead goal in the third period and the Knights won 5-3 Friday, handing the Cardinals their first conference loss of the season.
Plattsburgh (15-3-2, 8-1-2 SUNYAC) has 18 points — two more than Geneseo. But the Knights (14-4, 8-1) have seven games left while the Cardinals have five.
“We gotta take care of ourselves. There’s a lot of hockey left,” Plattsburgh coach Bob Emery said. “Geneseo’s in first place, so obviously we’re going to need help. But we’ve gotta take care of ourselves.”
No. 4 Plattsburgh plays Brockport tonight.
The Cardinals never led Friday. They came back from 1-goal deficits three times but fell behind for good with 5:55 left.
“I think we played really hard; I give our guys a lot of credit,” Emery said. “But we just gotta learn to play smarter. This is our third loss this year, and in all the losses, we weren’t prepared to win the game 1-0.
“Chewy (Mathieu Cadieux) made some good saves, but he didn’t play well (Friday). We gotta find a way to win those games for him and for ourselves.”
Brian Haude earned the win for Geneseo with 39 saves, and Cadieux had 31 for Plattsburgh.
The teams traded goals in the second period, with Ryan Stanimir tallying at 14:24 to give the Knights a 3-2 lead. The Cardinals tied it for the third time 3:15 into the third period on a goal by Barry Roytman.
But Ripple made it 4-3 with a power-play goal assisted by Justin Scharfe and Jack Caradonna, and Scharfe later added an empty-netter.
“It was a highly emotional game, back and forth,” Emery said. “We ended up being down (after two periods), and we got a great goal in the third and we were right back in it on the road. And then we take an undisciplined penalty.”
Stanimir finished with three points for the Knights. Zachary Vit and Stephen Collins scored their first two goals.
Ryan Farnan and Connor Gorman provided Plattsburgh’s second-period goals.
Leading scorer Alex Jensen tested his injured knee in the morning skate but could not play, and Emery did not expect him to be in the lineup tonight either.
The Golden Eagles beat Potsdam 4-1 Friday.
“This one hurts, but we’ve got another big game (today) — our final regular-season road game,” Emery said. “We gotta find a way to win, and it’s not going to be easy.”
—
Geneseo 5, Plattsburgh 3
Plattsburgh 0 2 1 — 3
Geneseo 0 3 2 — 5
First period- Penalties: Gorman, PSU (interference), 8:05. Stanimir, Gen (slashing), 8:05.
Second period- 1, Gen, Vit (Ceglarski, Ripple), 4:47. 2, PSU, Farnan (Emmerling, Botting), 6:15 (pp). 3, Gen, Collins (Stanimir, Stahl), 6:33. 4, PSU, Gorman (Emmerling, Hermans), 8:35. 5, Gen, Stanimir (Ceglarski), 14:24. Penalties: Brenton, PSU, (slashing), 1:38. Stahl, Gen (interference), 5:15. Popp, PSU (embellishment), 7:25. Brown, Gen (hooking), 7:25. Baleshta, PSU (hitting after the whistle), 14:11. Stahl, Gen (hitting after the whistle), 14:11.
Third period- 6, PSU, Roytman (N. Jensen, Hall), 3:15. 7, Gen, Ripple (Scharfe, Caradonna), 14:05 (pp). 8, Gen, Scharfe (Stanimir), 18:52 (en). Penalties: Solomon, Gen (hooking), 10:43. Brenton, PSU (slashing), 12:50. Scharfe, Gen (hitting after the whistle), 14:05. Schell, Gen (hitting after the whistle), 19:41. Brandon Beadow, PSU (hitting after the whistle), 19:41.
Plattsburgh 10 17 15 — 42
Geneseo 12 13 11 — 36
Goaltenders (shots-saves): Cadieux, PSU, 36-31. Haude, Gen, 42-39.
Power Plays (goals-opportunities): Plattsburgh 1-3, Geneseo 1-2.
Attendance: 2,239.
