Boxscore
Photo Gallery - Courtesy of Gabe Dickens

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – After four hours and ten minutes, Mark Constantine scored the biggest goal of his rookie season at 11:07 of the third overtime to give the Plattsburgh State men’s hockey team a 4-3 victory over Buffalo State and secure the Cardinals’ spot in the State University of New York Athletic Conference finals.
 
The Cardinals (18-4-4) will travel to top-seeded Oswego for the SUNYAC Championship game next Saturday. The Lakers advanced earlier in the evening after defeating Fredonia, 8-3.
 
Both teams battled through a scoreless first period, before Jake Mooney one-timed a rebound off a shot by Constantine from the point. Mike Grace also assisted on the power-play goal at 3:23 of the second to give Plattsburgh a 1-0 lead.
 
At 11:35 of the middle period, Jared Docking put Plattsburgh up by two when he buried a loose puck in front for his sixth of the year. Constantine and Alex Jensen assisted.
 
Buffalo State (13-12-2) answered back at 15:43 when Drew Kiln found the back of the nett from Mike Zannella and Tyler Nelson. But less than three minutes later, Patrick Jobb won a faceoff and fired a shot past Bengals’ goaltender Kevin Carr to allow Plattsburgh to regain the two-goal lead.
 
Holding the lead has proved to be a bugaboo for this year’s Plattsburgh squad and tonight proved no different as Buffalo State scored twice in the third period. Kyle Whipple’s second of the year at 13:21 brought the Bengals within one. With the extra attacker on, Zannella tied it up with 1:27 remaining in regulation when he netted John Corrigan’s rebound.
 
Then the marathon began.
 
The two teams played over 51 minutes of scoreless hockey through the three overtime periods. Both teams had scoring opportunities with the best of the night coming from Docking in the first overtime. Docking picked up a puck in the neutral zone and skated in with a clean breakaway, but Carr came up with a huge save to keep the game going.
 
Constantine’s sixth goal of the season put an end to the second longest Division III hockey game. The Cardinal rookie finished the night with three points.
 
Both goaltenders had outstanding nights between the pipes. Plattsburgh’s Mathieu Cadieux recorded 38 saves, including 11 in the first overtime, to improve to 15-4-3 on the year. Carr suffers a tough loss after turning away 67 shots for the Bengals. The Buffalo State goaltender finished with a combined 93 saves in the Bengals’ two postseason games this week.
 
Plattsburgh outshot Buffalo State by 30 as the final count was 71-41.
 
With the win, the Cardinals are 11-0-1 at home and are 3-0-4 in overtime games this season. Next weekend's matchup will mark the 12^th time Oswego and Plattsburgh will face each other in the SUNYAC finals.