Box Score
MASSENA, N.Y. – The Plattsburgh State men’s hockey team found itself trailing by two after one period, but a four-goal second period helped the Cardinals rally for a 6-4 win over SUNY Potsdam in a State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) game Saturday night at Massena Arena.
Potsdam (2-1-0, 1-1-0 SUNYAC) jumped out front with just 1:14 gone in the first period with Billy Pascalli’s goal. Erick Ware and Mike Arnold added assists on the early goal. The Bears stretched the lead to 2-0 at the 9:49 mark of the opening period when Kenny Simon found the back of the net for his first of the year from Kevin Carpenter and Mike Riley.
With 14 minutes left in the second period, Plattsburgh (2-0-0, 2-0-0 SUNYAC) began to dig itself out of the hole when Alex Brenton was able to deflect a puck in front of the net to cut the Bears’ lead to 2-1. Rich Botting and Michael Cassidy assisted on Brenton’s first of the season.
The Cardinals evened the score when Mark Constantine scored on the power-play with 11:35 gone in the second. Mike Grace took a shot from the blue line and Constantine knocked home the rebound to make it 2-2. Luke Baleshta was also credited with an assist on the goal.
Plattsburgh took its first lead of the even when the power-play unit cashed in another opportunity with 2:53 remaining in the second period. Nick Jensen gave the Cardinals a 3-2 lead with assists from Brandon Beadow and Dillan Fox.
At 18:27 of the middle period, Plattsburgh’s Max Balaban was whistled for a holding penalty to put the Cardinals down a skater. Jared Docking picked up his own pass that deflected off of Cassidy’s skate and beat Potsdam goaltender Austin Keiser for the short-handed goal, giving Plattsburgh a 4-2 lead after two periods of play.
The Bears would not go down without a fight as Arnold netted an unassisted short-handed goal at 3:14 of the third to trim the Plattsburgh lead to 4-3. Plattsburgh answered back at 12:51 with the eventual game-winner by Connor Gorman but Potsdam made it interesting with a power-play goal from Trevor Cope with 1:51 remaining in regulation.
An empty-net goal by Alex Jensen at 19:15 would finally put the Bears away and give the Cardinals the 6-4 victory.
Plattsburgh went 2-for-7 on the power-play and finished with 34 shots on goal. The Bears went 1-for-6 with the man advantage and took 24 shots.
Josh Leis made 20 saves to earn the win in his second-straight start for Plattsburgh. Keiser turned away 28 of the 34 shots he faced in the loss for the Bears.
The Cardinals return home Friday for a full weekend of conference play. Plattsburgh opens the weekend on Friday with a rematch of last year’s SUNYAC semifinals against Buffalo State. The weekend wraps up with a Saturday night matchup against Fredonia State. Both games are set for 7 p.m. at the Stafford Ice Arena.
