PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – The No. 4 Plattsburgh State men's ice hockey team tied No. 12 Norwich on Wednesday night, as a back-and-forth contest resulted in a 4-4 stalemate. The Cardinals had four different goal scorers and six different players tally assists in a well-rounded offensive effort.

The Plattsburgh State Cardinals are No. 4 in the latest USCHO.com Division III Top-15 Poll, while Norwich is ranked No. 12.

Joshua Belgrave (Burlington, Ontario/Burlington Cougars) opened the scoring for Plattsburgh in the first period, while Trey Thomas (Williams Lake, British Columbia/Brooks Bandits) scored the team's lone second-period goal. Both Aaron Catron (Middletown, Del./Philadelphia Little Flyers) and Jake Lanyi (North Salem, N.Y./Connecticut Jr. Rangers) tallied third-period goals for the Cards. Eli Shiller (Toronto, Ontario/Wellington Dukes) was the goalie of record for Plattsburgh, as he earned the tie by making 25 saves in 65 minutes of action.

Norwich scored on two of their seven power play opportunities while Plattsburgh was 0-2 on their power play chances. Shots were closely contested between the two teams, as the Cardinals led by a slim margin, 32-29.
Plattsburgh State moves to 15-3-2 with their second straight tie and will make the trip to Potsdam on Saturday, Feb. 3 for their next game. Norwich now stands at 12-6-4 and has a game on the road at New England College scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 3 as their next contest.

As they have so often this season, the Cardinals started by scoring early, as a strong offensive attack to start the game culminated in a Belgrave goal. The sophomore forward tallied his 11^th goal of the year as Adam Tretowicz (Baldwinsville, N.Y./Buffalo Jr. Sabres) skated from the neutral zone into the left face-off circle, where he passed to Belgrave skating right down the slot past a Norwich defender for a fantastic transition goal. For the period, the Cardinals played excellent defense, holding the opposition to zero shots on goal, while attempting 11 shots themselves.

The lone goal of the first period stood for less than four minutes once the second period began, as Owen Sclisizzi tied the game at one for the Cadets at the 3:51 mark. Just over two minutes later, Clark Kerner netted a power-play goal for Norwich, giving the Cadets a 2-1 at the 6:05 mark of the second period.

Plattsburgh State was able to respond quickly to the two Norwich goals, as Thomas was able to sink a shot from the right faceoff circle to knot things up at two apiece. The Cardinals netted their second goal of the game as Ryan Poorman (Phoenixville, Pa./Norwich) forced a turnover to regain control of the puck in the Plattsburgh offensive zone, as he passed to Bennett Stockdale (Ottawa, Ontario/Alabama Huntsville) who a nice feed to Thomas for the one-timer and score.

The 2-2 score held heading into the second intermission, as the second stanza saw a more even game than the first period, with Norwich outshooting Plattsburgh 11-9 in the second 20-minute period.

The first 10 minutes of the third period saw constant action, but neither team could come through to break the deadlock. Finally, Catron pushed in a backhand shot coming from behind the net for his sixth goal of the year to give Plattsburgh the 3-2 lead at the 11:33 mark of action. Just under three minutes later Lanyi picked up what looked like a huge insurance goal, as he intercepted a Norwich pass in the slot to score past the goal glove side.

With four minutes to go, the Cardinals led 4-2 and looked to be on their way to their 16^th win of the year, but the Cadets did not go down without a fight, scoring just five seconds into a power play opportunity at the 16:10 mark to go down 4-3. Continuing as they had the majority of the period with consistent offensive pressure, Ben van Waterschoot tied the game at four goals apiece with under two-and-half to go at the 17:41 mark to stun the Cards' faithful.

Even with the big momentum swing, Plattsburgh stood strong and killed a penalty that leaked into the eventual overtime period, in an exciting five-minute exhibition where each team had several opportunities to pick up a win. Eventually, the horn would sound with neither team finding the back of the net, as the Cadets and Cardinals settled for a 4-4 tie in their second meeting this season.

Bryce Walcarius made 28 saves for Norwich in net while Johnny Johnson, Clark Kerner, and Ben van Waterschoot each had a goal and assist for the Cadets.