Re: Plattsburgh State Hockey 2012-13 - Season 24
POST STAR
Plattsburgh prevails in college game at Civic Center
11 hours ago • By DIANA C. NEARHOS --
dnearhos@poststar.com
GLENS FALLS -- Back in the late summer, SUNY Plattsburgh had an idea to get its branch campus in Queensbury more involved in campus life: hold a hockey game at the Glens Falls Civic Center.
The Cardinals had a game scheduled at Skidmore College and asked the school if it would be interested in moving the game to the Civic Center. The Thoroughbreds were on board, and by September the plan was set.
Friday night was the first half of what was termed the Hockey Weekend in the Adirondacks, with the Adirondack Phantoms playing a home game Saturday to complete the weekend.
Plattsburgh came out firing, getting on the board three minutes into the game and went on to a 7-1 victory.
“You get out there and the building is a little bit bigger, so there’s more excitement. We love playing Plattsburgh, one of the best teams in the country and they push us to play better. So to play them here made it that much better,” Skidmore captain Brendan Cottam said.
Skidmore stayed with Plattsburgh, in terms of shots, through the first two periods, but struggled to get past Cardinal goaltender Mathieu Cadieux.
“It’s always fun to play in a place like this,” Skidmore head coach Neil Sinclair said. “We’ve played up in Lake Placid — that’s a special place for U.S. hockey. Coming up and playing in a venue like this is always fun for the young men and it gets you ready for championship hockey, when you’re going to be playing in a venue that’s similar to this.”
The Civic Center staff anticipated a crowd of about 500 and got an attendance of 871. Most of those fans wore Plattsburgh red, something that did not surprise Plattsburgh’s Jared Docking, who said the team has a “one-of-a-kind” fan base that follows the team everywhere.
Docking, who said Plattsburgh has struggled to get started recently, got the Cardinals going early, scoring the first two goals of the game at 3:05 and 8:32, both on power plays. The senior had been to the Civic Center once before, to see a Phantoms game three years ago.
“It’s good to get on ice level and it’s pretty noisy. It’s a special time,” Docking said.
Docking is not the only Cardinal to have experience at the Civic Center. Plattsburgh head coach Bob Emery played here in his AHL days.
“The only thing is, we didn’t win a lot here. The Adirondack Red Wings were terrific back then, I don’t think we ever won. It’s good to get a win here, it might be my first one ever,” Emery said.
“It’s a great rink, it’s a great atmosphere. The sound was good. Even though it wasn’t a huge crowd you could really hear them during the game. Glens Falls has something special in this rink.”
Plattsburgh (10-4-1) 3 2 2 – 7
Skidmore (5-7-2) 0 1 0 — 1
First period — 1, Plattsburgh, Docking (Jensen), 3:05 (pp); 2, Plattsburgh, Docking (Baleshta, Emmerling), 8:32 (pp); 3, Constantine (Gorman, Baleshta), 13:49.
Second period — 4, Plattsburgh, Smith (Docking, Roytman), 3:52; 5, Skidmore, Colvin (Nilsson, Buonocore), 8:31; 6, Plattsburgh, Mooney (Popp, Calabrese), 17:15.
Third period — 7, Plattsburgh, Fox (Smith), 11:29; 8, Plattsburgh, Popp, 12:54.
Goalie-saves — Cadieux (P) 27; Freiberg (S) 31.