College Hockey Stats Box Score

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – The Plattsburgh State men's ice hockey team secured the No. 3 seed in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Tournament with a 5-1 win over SUNY Cortland on Friday evening at the Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena in conference action. The Cardinals will host sixth-seeded The College at Brockport in the first round of the SUNYAC Tournament on Wednesday, Feb. 20, at 7 p.m.
 
The Cardinals outshot the Red Dragons by a 39-22 margin, while both teams were scoreless on the power play. Cortland was 0-for-4 with the extra attacker, while Plattsburgh State was 0-for-3.
 
Sophomore forward Mike Falanga (East Haven, Conn./Islanders Hockey Club) and senior forward Cam Owens (Wilmington, Mass./Islanders Hockey Club) paced the Cardinal attack with two points each on a goal and an assist, while senior forward Ross Sloan (Oakville, Ontario/Oakville Blades) and freshman defenseman Matt Araujo (Brookhaven, N.Y./Boston Jr. Rangers) each dished out two assists.
 
Plattsburgh State rises to 11-11-2 overall (9-5-1 SUNYAC) with the win and next hosts archrival No. 3/3 Oswego State tomorrow evening at 7 p.m. in its regular-season finale. Cortland drops to 9-15-0 overall (3-12-0 SUNYAC) with the loss and wraps up its season tomorrow night at SUNY Potsdam at 7 p.m.
 
Junior defenseman Andrew Pizzo (Thorold, Ontario/Niagara University) fired the opening salvo 1:34 into the contest, one-timing a shot from the high slot into the back of the net on a face-off win by Sloan. Junior defenseman Philip Middleton (Vail, Colo./Salmon Arm Silverbacks) made it a 2-0 game 4:16 later. Falanga chipped a puck ahead into the neutral zone, and junior forward Joe Drabin (Rochester, N.Y./Wenatchee Wild) got a piece of it with his glove before Middleton took control. Middleton led an odd-man rush into the Cortland end and scored on a wrist shot high glove side.
 
Cortland got on the board at 14:25 of the first period to cut the deficit in half. Freshman forward Dorian Overland helped force a turnover in the left corner and got the puck to sophomore forward Conor Tierney behind the goal line. Tierney passed to freshman forward Ian Keller out in front, and Keller one-timed a shot that hit the right post and went past the goal line.
 
Owens extended the lead to two at 9:17 of the second period. Freshman defenseman Ian Wallgren (Stockholm, Sweden/Connecticut Oilers) played a puck back to senior forward Ryan Kuhn (Wheatfield, N.Y./Niagara University) in the Cardinals' zone, and Kuhn cut through several Cortland defenders on the rush before dropping a pass back to Owens at the top of the left face-off circle. Owens wristed a shot past the goalie glove side to net his seventh goal of the year.
 
Falanga made it a 4-1 game at 11:02 of the second. Sloan won an offensive-zone face-off back to Araujo on the left point, and Araujo passed to Falanga along the left wing. Falanga then took a shot from the left circle that hit the top right corner of the pipes and crossed the goal line.
 
Senior forward Cole Stallard (Atlanta, Ga./New Hampshire Jr. Monarchs) put the game on ice at 11:09 of the third period. Araujo got a piece of the puck along the endboards in the Cardinals' end, and Owens carried it into the neutral zone before passing off to Stallard. Stallard entered the offensive zone along the left wing and scored high glove side.
 
Sophomore goaltender Jimmy Poreda (Tonawanda, N.Y./Connecticut Jr. Rangers) made 19 saves in 55:27 of work to earn the win, while freshman goaltender Brandon Wells (Spirit River, Alberta/Melville Millionaires) wound up making two stops in the final 4:33 of play. Junior goaltender Nick Modica shouldered the loss for Cortland, tallying 34 saves.