The Cardinals appeared to be on their way to a romp Friday after scoring three goals in the opening 10:15.
They ended up with a hard-fought victory.
Potsdam tallied three consecutive goals to tie the SUNY Athletic Conference men's hockey game at Stafford Ice Arena before Barry Roytman lifted Plattsburgh State to a 4-3 win with a late power-play goal.
Plattsburgh coach Bob Emery said things were too easy in the first period.
"Our guys don't respond well when things get easy for us," he said. "And I think a lot of problems stem from when things are easy for us, we kinda play on our heels. We don't have enough skill to play on our heels."
The third-ranked Cardinals (13-2-4, 8-1-1 SUNYAC) extended their unbeaten streak to 12 games. They remained one point behind Oswego in the conference standings, although Oswego has a SUNYAC game today and the Cardinals don't play again until next Friday.
Potsdam coach Chris Bernard said "it could've been 6-0" after the first period if not for some very good saves by Kevin McFarland.
But Emery called a timeout 3:20 into the second because he didn't like what he saw, and that apparently wasn't enough to get the Cardinals' attention. Mike Arnold put the Bears on the board with a power-play goal at 11:42, and Erick Ware quickly followed with a long shot that beat Mathieu Cadieux and brought Potsdam within one.
The Bears fired three times as many shots in the second as in the first. They held a 22-14 advantage in the second.
"Obviously we were really flat coming out," Bernard said. "And I think I just came in there (at the first intermission), and I challenged our guys individually to really dig deep and find it within themselves and represent themselves and the program in the way we've been challenging them to do."
The Bears (6-11-2, 4-6) had 32 seconds left on a power play at the start of the third, and they only used 29. Sy Nutkevitch tied the game at 3-3.
The Cardinals got a 5-on-3 with less than four minutes left, and they knew that was a golden opportunity.
"It had to be now or never. Because if it wasn't going to come now, we were going into overtime," Roytman said. "We weren't having a great game, but we finally pulled it off and that's all that matters."
Jared Docking and Kyle Kudroch both earned their second assist of the night on Roytman's goal with 3:30 to go.
Cadieux made 32 saves.
"We were fortunate enough (Friday) to go out and play a great third period," Emery said. "We got pucks in deep. We kinda wore them down, forced them to take a couple penalties and we took advantage of it."
McFarland finished with 40 stops. Matt Viola assisted on all three Potsdam goals.
Ryan Craig put the puck in an open left side of the net less than two minutes into the game. The next two goals came in quick succession. Kyle Taylor tallied at 9:42, and Michael Cassidy slid in a loose puck 33 seconds later.
Emery wasn't sure if blowing that three-goal lead would be an eye-opener.
"As a coach you hope you learn from your mistakes, and we've been making the same mistakes over and over again," he said. "So I can't answer that we're going to learn from this game at all. I wish."
Plattsburgh's second-leading scorer, Nick Jensen, and freshman Alex Brenton did not play Friday. Emery said both were held out for taking bad penalties in the previous game.
The Cardinals wore black jerseys that were auctioned off after the game.
Emery said some proceeds will go to the team and some will be donated to charity.
Plattsburgh 4, Potsdam 3
Potsdam 0 2 1 — 3
Plattsburgh 3 0 1 — 4
First period- 1, PSU, Craig (A. Jensen, Scuglia), 1:48. 2, PSU, Taylor (Docking, Kudroch), 9:42. 3, PSU, Cassidy (Mooney, Schlueter), 10:15. Penalties: McCamey, Pots (slashing), 17:55.
Second period- 4, Pots, Arnold (Viola), 11:42 (pp). 5, Pots, Ware (McCamey, Viola), 12:24. Penalties: Arnold, Pots (high sticking), 4:13. McCamey, Pots (hooking), 7:11. Mooney, PSU (hooking), 9:59. A. Jensen, PSU (boarding), 13:54. Cadieux, PSU (hooking), 18:32.
Third period- 7, PSU, Roytman (Docking, Kudroch), 16:30 (pp). Penalties: A. Jensen, PSU (tripping), 5:27. Syrydiuk, Pots (hooking), 11:40. Avgerinos, Pots (elbowing), 15:22. Ware, Pots (cross checking), 16:19.
Shots on goal:
Potsdam 7 22 6 — 35
Plattsburgh 17 14 13 — 44
Goaltenders (shots-saves): McFarland, Pots, 44-40. Cadieux, PSU, 35-32.
Power play (goals-opportunities): Potsdam 2-
4, Plattsburgh 1-
6.
Attendance: 1,792.
Email
Courtney Lewis at:
clewis@pressrepublican.com
