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By NICK ST. DENIS
PLATTSBURGH — Fredonia probably wishes it could have borrowed a handful of the 10 goals it scored Friday against Potsdam to use Saturday at Stafford Ice Arena.
Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, it doesn't quite work that way.
The Plattsburgh State men's hockey team shut out Fredonia until a 6-on-4 Blue Devils' power-play goal with 19 seconds remaining en route to a 4-1 SUNY Athletic Conference victory Saturday night.
It was the final regular-season home game for the Cardinals (16-4-4), who will host a semifinal playoff game in the conference tournament in three weeks.
"We played with a much better attitude tonight," Plattsburgh coach Bob Emery said 24 hours after what he referred to as an emotionless 4-2 victory over Buffalo State.
"It was the complete package (Saturday), minus a couple mistakes on defense."
A critical part of that complete package was Plattsburgh goaltender Josh Leis.
Leis made 21 saves and earned every one of them, including a top-notch breakaway stop in which he baited a free Fredonia forward to shoot glove-side after receiving a nice feed in the slot.
"I just tried to go down and give him the glove side," Leis said. "Show him what he has, and take it away."
Leis earned second star-of-the-game honors behind Phil Farrow, who scored the eventual game-winner at 16:57 in the first period.
Farrow snapped in a rebound top-right corner on the power play just over 14 minutes after Cardinal defenseman Mike Grace gave Plattsburgh the 1-0 lead.
Grace received a pass from Dylan Clarke along the inside of the blue line and ripped a one-timer through a crowded slot and between the legs of Fredonia netminder Kody Van Rentergem.
"We passed the puck well and attempted a lot of shots," Emery said about the Cardinals' 43-22 shot-advantage.
Leis was able to bail Plattsburgh out of the few defensive mistakes it made, except for the Blue Devils' late tally.
Fredonia forward Jordan Oye knocked in a relatively wide-open rebound after Leis scrambled to stop a Steve Rizer shot.
"They pulled their goalie and were 6-on-4 and just crashed the net," Leis said. "It was kind of disappointing to give up the goal, but the important thing is we got the win, and it was a big win.
"We didn't play with much emotion last night, and I think tonight we took it to them."
Andrew Willock gave Plattsburgh a 3-0 lead when he cycled around the top of the left circle and fired a wrist shot over Van Rentergem's right shoulder.
Matt Bessing finished the scoring for the Cardinals at 14:50 in the third period.
Plattsburgh will look to redeem a disappointing 3-3 tie with Potdam earlier in the season when it travels to face the Bears for the regular-season finale next weekend.
"Hopefully we can get a little revenge after blowing a 3-goal lead in the third period last time," Leis said. "Even though it was a tie, that game felt like a loss."
Emery added that each game, including next weekend's meeting with Potsdam, is important in attaining an NCAA tournament.
—
Plattsburgh 4, Fredonia 1
Score by periods:
Plattsburgh211—4
Fredonia001—1
First period- 1, P, Grace (Clarke), 2:54. 2, P, Farrow (Corry, DeLong), 16:57.
Second period- 3, P, Willock (MacLeod, Clarke), 10:09.
Third period- 4, P, Bessing (MacLeod, Schlueter), 14:50. 5, F, Oye (Rizer, Kulikoski), 19:39.
Shots on goal:
Fredonia5710—22
Plattsburgh151810—43
Goaltenders (shots-saves): Van Rentergem, F, 43-39. Leis, P, 22-21.
Power plays (goals-opportunities): Plattsburgh, 2-4. Fredonia, 1-5
Attendance: 1,711.
