MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — The Cardinals left the PrimeLink Great Northern Shootout without a goal, but they did salvage a point.
Middlebury and Plattsburgh State had plenty of chances in Saturday's third-place game, but they ended it with a scoreless tie at Kenyon Arena. The sixth-ranked Cardinals didn't light the lamp in 125 minutes of play at the annual men's hockey tournament.
Norwich defeated Elmira 5-2 in the championship game to claim its second title in three years.
Plattsburgh's Josh Leis stopped 26 shots to record his third career shutout. Middlebury's Nick BonDurant, playing first game of the season, had 19 saves.
Plattsburgh defenseman Paul Puglisi was named to the All-Tournament team.
Coach Bob Emery said the longer the Cardinals (5-2-1) went without scoring, the more frustrated they got. At one point late in the game, Jared Docking returned the bench and slammed his stick down, and he wasn't the only player to end a shift visibly annoyed.
"There was a lot of frustration on the bench," Emery said. "I give the guys credit for really, really working hard. We didn't play as smart as we can play. But I give them credit for working hard.
"But the frustration, we gotta somehow put that on the back burner."
The Cardinals had two close calls in their own zone the middle of the third period. They sent the puck back toward their open net as Leis was heading off the ice on a delayed penalty, and a Middlebury player tapped it in at the last second. The goal didn't count because of the penalty.
During Plattsburgh's ensuing power play, Leis came way out of his crease to play the puck but went down. Middlebury's Charlie Strauss raced to the puck, but couldn't get it cleanly across to his open teammate.
Plattsburgh had a great opportunity when the puck came to Ryan Craig in the slot and Jordan Gidaro was there to whack at the rebound a couple times. But BonDurant turned all three shots away, and he later denied Vick Schlueter on a breakaway in the final seconds of regulation.
The goalies were busy in the five-minute overtime period, as well.
"I think there were some real good chances both ways, and I think both teams worked real hard, especially rebounding off the disappointment from (Friday) night," Middlebury coach Bill Beaney said. "It was a good college hockey game. Lots of good things happened."
The Panthers rang a shot off the post while shorthanded in the first period, and the Cardinals sent a puck skipping through the crease in the middle of the second.
Plattsburgh went into the weekend averaging 4.67 goals per night, and Emery couldn't recall his team being shut out in back-to-back games in the past.
"Plattsburgh teams of late have had the characteristics of not having a lot of goal scoring, and I just hope this team isn't like one of those teams," Emery said. "We stress defense, but if we score goals at the pace we scored these last couple games, we're going to really have to really stress defensive hockey."
The Cardinals lost to the top-ranked team in Division III, Norwich, Friday before taking on the 11th-ranked Panthers.
"Well, it was our two toughest games of the year, no doubt about it," Emery said. "We learned a lot about ourselves playing those two teams. Those two teams are going to be playing in March, and we have to find ways to beat those teams, no doubt."
After No. 10 Elmira (5-3) struck 41 seconds into the championship game, Norwich tallied three straight power-play goals to take the lead for good. Doug Lindensmith tied it at 13:05 of the first, and Pier-Olivier Cotnoir scored twice in the final five minutes of the period.
The Soaring Eagles got within one late in the first, but Kyle Thomas put it back to two in the third before Corey Hale added an empty-netter.
Cotnoir was named the tournament's MVP.
, however if you are coming to the New Years Tourney in Northfied, you can find me in Section 22