GENESEO, N.Y. – The Plattsburgh State men's hockey team finished with a four-point road weekend after defeating #4 Geneseo 7-4 in a game that saw the Cardinals trail the Ice Knight 3-0 five minutes into the second period.
The Ice Knights started the game hot as they tallied two goals in a 39 second span in the first period. Ryan Donnelly scored the first goal for Geneseo at 5:52 only to see David Ripple follow that up with a goal of his own at 6:31.
The second period featured up and down action that saw three goals within one minute and the Cardinals score four of their own to complete a comeback over the Ice Knights.
Ripple would tally his second goal of the game at 5:55 in the second period to give the Ice Knights a 3-0 lead.
However Plattsburgh would come alive to strike quickly and often as four juniors would all find the back of the net for their first goals of the season to give the Cardinals a 4-3 lead through two periods.
First was Luke Baleshta from Dillan Fox scoring 6:30 into the second just to see Connor Gorman score unassisted 12 seconds later to cut the Geneseo lead to 3-2.
As Plattsburgh captured the momentum Kevin Emmerling would tie the game 3-3 with Michael Radisa and Chirs Taff each collected an assist on the goal 9:45 left into the second period.
Radisa would then score the fourth-straight goal for the Plattsburgh and give the Cardinals their first lead of the game at 4-3, a lead that they would not relinquish.
At the start of the third period Kyle Hall would score his first of the season a mere 29 seconds into the period as the Cardinals converted on a power play goal to give themselves a 5-3 lead.
Gorman would tally his second of the night and bring the total to six-unanswered goals by Plattsburgh to give them a commanding 6-3 lead with less than 3 minutes left in the third period.
Geneseo would finally stop the streak with a minute forty left in regulation as Ryan Stanimir scored his second goal of the season.
In a last ditch effort down 6-4 the Ice Knights pulled their goalie only to see senior transfer Connor Toomey score his first in a Cardinal uniform to make it 7-4 Plattsburgh.
The Cardinals outshot the Knights 39-30 as Spencer Finney made 26 saves and is now 2-0-0 on the season. Ice Knights goalie Nick Horrigan made 32 saves while picking up the loss.
After the 2-0-0 weekend Plattsburgh moves to 3-0-0 (3-0-0 SUNYAC) and is tied for first place in the SUNYAC standing with rival Oswego State. Geneseo dropped both games to the North Country this weekend as Potsdam beat the Ice Knights 2-1 on Friday. The Ice Knights now find themselves 2-2-0 (2-2-0 SUNYAC) overall.
The Cardinals will return to the Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena Friday for their season opener as they welcome in Buffalo State and then Fredonia on Saturday.
