It took 111 minutes of hockey and 71 shots on net, but Plattsburgh State dispatched Buffalo State and earned a spot in the SUNY Athletic Conference championship game.
Mark Constantine scored top shelf 11:07 into the third overtime Saturday to give the Cardinals a 4-3 victory in a men's hockey semifinal at Stafford Ice Arena.
"That was a big-time goal-scorer's goal," Plattsburgh coach Bob Emery said. "It was a scissor pass off the wall, and he took it to their net and put it upstairs. He's one of our most skilled guys, and that was a goal-scorer's goal for sure."
No. 2 seed Plattsburgh (18-4-4) will travel to Oswego for the final next Saturday. The Lakers beat Fredonia, 8-3, in the semifinals.
Constantine, who had three points Saturday, has scored in the last two games after having gone without a goal since November.
Mathieu Cadieux made 38 saves for Plattsburgh. Kevin Carr suffered the loss despite
turning away 67 shots.
Buffalo State's Mike Zannella sent the game into extra periods by scoring the equalizer with 1:27 left in the third period.
The Cardinals had a great chance to end it early in the first overtime when Jared Docking went in all alone on a breakaway. Carr denied him and also held strong during a scramble shortly after.
There were some frantic moments at both ends the rest of that period. But then the Cardinals started to take over.
They outshot Buffalo State, 14-3, in the second overtime and held the third-seeded Bengals (13-12-2) to one shot in the third extra frame.
"We knew we were outplaying them," Constantine said. "We could see that they were tired."
Finally, Constantine skated in from the left side of the net and beat Carr with assists from Kyle Kudroch and Docking.
"And thank God," Constantine said. "It was a long game there."
After two periods, Plattsburgh didn't look like it would need that much time to advance.
Jake Mooney took a pass at the right side of the net and one-timed it to put Plattsburgh ahead 3:23 into the second. Docking made it 2-0 when he corralled a rebound and flipped it into the open right side of the net.
Drew Klin put Buffalo State on the board with just under five minutes left in the period, but Patrick Jobb answered with a goal off a faceoff and the Cardinals took a 3-1 lead into the intermission.
They kept their two-goal cushion for most of the third, but then
Kyle Whipple made good use of the crossbar and brought the Bengals back within one at 13:21.
Buffalo State pulled Carr with 1:33 to play and needed just five seconds to capitalize on the extra attacker. Zannella lifted a loose puck over Cadieux to knot the score.
"From a coaching standpoint, we've gotta learn from our mistakes (Saturday)," Emery said. "We've got a two-goal lead, we're playing pretty good. As we move ahead here, teams are going to get better. We can't lack poise at the end of the game and give up the lead.
"But the players did respond in overtime."
—
Plattsburgh 4, Buffalo State 3 (3OT)
Buffalo State 0 1 2 0 0 0 — 3
Plattsburgh 0 3 0 0 0 1 — 4
First period- Penalties: N. Jensen, PSU (hooking), 0:22. Bessing, BS (roughing), 2:48. Durham, BS (boarding), 11:06. Avery, BS (tripping), 15:14. Roytman, PSU (boarding), 19:47.
Second period- 1, PSU, Mooney (Constantine, Grace), 3:23 (pp). 2, PSU, Docking (Constantine, A. Jensen), 11:35. 3, BS, Klin (Zannella, Nelson), 15:43. 4, PSU, Jobb, 18:11. Penalties: Klin, BS (hitting from behind), 1:46. Beadow, PSU (hitting from behind), 13:38. Schlueter, PSU (holding), 18:35.
Third period- 5, BS, Whipple (Hale, Bessing), 13:21. 6, BS, Zannella (Corrigan), 18:33 (ex).
Third overtime- 7, PSU, Constantine (Kudroch, Docking), 11:07.
Shots on goal:
Buffalo State 8 6 12 11 3 1 — 41
Plattsburgh 14 16 12 8 14 7 — 71
Goaltenders (shots-saves): Carr, BS, 71-67. Cadieux, PSU, 41-38.
Power plays (goals-opportunities): Buffalo State 0-4.; Plattsburgh 1-4.
Attendance: 1,404.
Email
Courtney Lewis at:
clewis@pressrepublican.com
