Plattsburgh State travels to Utica

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February 11, 2012

JOHN CORYER Press-Republican The Press Republican Sat Feb 11, 2012, 02:23 AM EST

PLATTSBURGH — The Plattsburgh State women's hockey team got some good news Friday night.

The Cardinals kept their hopes of hosting the ECAC West Tournament Final Four alive when RIT skated to a 5-1 home win over Elmira.

The Cardinals (15-5-2 overall, 13-1-2 ECAC West) close out their league regular season at 4 p.m. today and on Sunday at Utica College.

Friday's outcome left RIT at 13-1-1 and Elmira at 13-2 in the conference. Plattsburgh State needs to win both its games this weekend and have RIT, who the Cardinals have a tie-breaker edge over, and Elmira tie today on the Soaring Eagles' home ice in order to host the ECAC West event.

An Elmira victory today, however, would put the Soaring Eagles in the driver's seat. Elmira still has to play two games against Oswego next weekend, while RIT has two games remaining against Cortland. The Tigers and Soaring Eagles will be heavy favorites in those final regular season games.

"Obviously there's a lot at stake going into the weekend," Plattsburgh State coach Kevin Houle said. "We want to position ourselves the best possible way for the playoffs.

"We want to go down there and take four points like any other weekend."

Utica College is 8-10-3 overall and 5-7-2 in ECAC West play. The Pioneers are a dangerous team, however, and are fighting for their playoff lives.

"Utica is a good team and their record doesn't indicate how good they are," Houle said. "They have good goaltending and a number of good players.

"The had a one-goal loss at Elmira and a one-goal loss to Middlebury. We know the history between the two teams, and we have struggled at times against them.

"We're both battling for something — us the regular season title or second place, while Utica needs a point or two to make the playoffs. We have to be 100 percent prepared to play them."

The Cardinals will need to put Wednesday's disappointing 8-7 non-conference home loss to Norwich University in the past.

"We have to process everything," Houle said. "We gave the girls the day off after the Norwich game because they needed it. We need to put that game behind us.

"We've played real good hockey the second semester. Both us and Norwich were a little sloppy at times, but that is partly because of the team we're playing against.We need to do a better job on the penalty kill and in our own zone."