Boxscore
NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The No. 7 Plattsburgh State men’s hockey team took a two-goal lead into the third period, but goals from Norwich’s Colin Mulvey and Chris Duszynski in the final stanza brought the Cadets even as the Cardinals salvaged a 4-4 tie against the top-ranked Norwich men’s hockey team in the first half finale.
Heading into the final period, Norwich (8-0-1, 6-0-0 ECAC East) trailed by two goals for the first time this season. Plattsburgh (6-2-3, 6-1-1 SUNYAC) had all the momentum going its way after junior forward Jared Docking scored two goals to break a 2-2 deadlock and turn it into a 4-2 Cardinals’ lead heading into the second intermission.
The Cadets cut the deficit to one at the 7:11 mark when Mulvey slammed home a deflected pass from Tory Allan. Allan walked out from the half boards and tried to send a pass to Mulvey who was cutting through the slot. However, a Plattsburgh defender caught a piece of the pass to slow it down. Mulvey still recovered in time though and beat Plattsburgh goalie Mathieu Cadieux who never had a chance to recover from the deflection.
Just 4:31 later, Duszynski took his own blocked pass and shoved a puck top shelf on the back hand over Cadieux’s shoulder to knot the game up at four. Duszynski initially tried to feed Igor Martinez in the slot but the pass was blocked. Instead he scooped up the puck and flicked it past Cadieux.
Norwich got on the board first at the 8:19 mark of the first period when Shane Gorman’s wrist shot crossed up Cadieux and trickled over the line to give the Cadets a 1-0 lead. Gorman took a wrist shot from the edge of the left faceoff circle that Cadieux got a glove on, but not enough to keep the shot from getting behind him.
Plattsburgh answered back at the 11:44 mark when Ryan Craig beat Norwich goalie Parker Carroll on the doorstep of the crease off assists from Jake Mooney and Ryan Craig.
Less than a minute later, the Cadets regained the lead with Doug Lindensmith’s sixth goal of the season. Lindensmith beat Cadieux off an assist from Duszynski.
Just under three minutes later, Plattsburgh tied it back up with a brilliant unassisted goal from Ryan Farnan. Farnan got control of the puck behind the Norwich cage, skated to the bottom of the right face-off circle, turned and fired a quick wrist shot top shelf into the upper right hand corner of the goal and past Carroll’s blocker.
Docking scored his first goal of the year at the 8:54 mark of the second period to give Plattsburgh its first lead of the game when he slid a puck past a sprawled out Carroll after a pretty tic-tac-toe passing play from Mooney and Craig.
Docking struck again with just 17 seconds left in the period when he picked the pocket of a Norwich forward after the Cadet fumbled the outlet pass and skated in on Carroll from the left wing.
Docking faked a shot to get Carroll to commit and then circled behind the net. While Carroll was struggling to get back in position, Docking wrapped the puck around the far post and into the back of the net to increase the Plattsburgh lead to 4-2.
Norwich outshot Plattsburgh 24-21. Both teams were 0-for-2 on the power play and each team committed two penalties for four minutes. The Cadets blew a 5-on-3 opportunity in the second period when Plattsburgh’s Mike Grace and Nick Jensen were whistled for penalties 52 seconds apart. However, Plattsburgh prevented Norwich from getting a shot on goal during the two-man advantage.
Cadieux stopped 20 shots for Plattsburgh and is now 3-2-2 on the season. Carroll made 17 saves for Norwich and is now 6-0-1 on the year.
The Cardinals are off until Dec. 30 when they return home for the Annual Cardinal Classic Tournament, which boasts a field that includes three teams who were nationally-ranked in the last USCHO.com Division III poll. Utica and Castleton will face-off at 4 p.m. before Plattsburgh hosts Babson at 7 p.m. The consolation and championship games are set for 1 and 4 p.m. respectively on Dec. 31.
