Boxscore

UTICA, N.Y. - Emma Rutherford tallied a hat trick as the Plattsburgh State women's hockey team (16-5-2, 14-1-2 ECAC West) skated to a 7-1 victory over Utica College (8-11-3, 5-8-2 ECAC West) Saturday afternoon in an Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) West contest. 

Teal Gove got the Cardinals going at 15:07 of the first period with her team-leading 15th goal of the year. Allison Era and Alyssa Parke assisted on the goal. A minute and a half later, Rutherford scored her first of the afternoon, an unassisted goal at the 16:34 mark of the opening period.

Rutherford lit the lamp again at 15:23 of the second period before Shannon Stewart scored a power-play goal at the 17:22 mark to give Plattsburgh a 4-0 lead. 

With 20 seconds remaining in the second, Utica's Meredith Tice knocked one past Plattsburgh goalie Sydney Aveson to cut the Cardinal lead to 4-1 after two periods of play.

The Cardinals added three goals in the third to easily pick up the win. Rutherford completed the hat trick with 3:33 gone in the third with assists from Kylie Klassen and Jenny Kistner. Chelsea VanGlahn and Parke followed with goals to round out the scoring.

Utica more than doubled Plattsburgh's shots in the second period, 13-6, and finished the day with a 29-24 advantage. Aveson moves to 14-4-1 with 28 saves against the Pioneers. Marissa Hotaling logged the majority of minutes in the Utica net, recording 12 saves in the loss. Marissa McNamara stepped in for the final 9:10, making five stops.

Plattsburgh remains in first-place in the ECAC West standings with 30 points. R.I.T. sits in second place with 29 points after taking two games from Elmira over the weekend. Elmira's 26 points are good for third place in the conference standings. 

The Cardinals wrap up the weekend series at Utica tomorrow afternoon with a 4 p.m. game before closing out the regular season next Saturday in a non-conference game at Middlebury.