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January 22, 2009

Cardinals head west in SUNYAC

Cardinals head west, eager to put first loss behind them

By JOHN CORYER

PLATTSBURGH — Plattsburgh State men's hockey coach Bob Emery likes to say you're only as good as your last game.

And, for the Cardinals, their last game wasn't very good. Plattsburgh State fell from the unbeaten ranks with a 5-3 loss at Skidmore College on Jan. 13.

The Cardinals have had over a week to get over that loss and head back into State University of New York Athletic Conference play this weekend at Fredonia tonight and Buffalo State on Saturday, both at 7 p.m.

"A lot of people are saying the loss will help us," said Emery. "I'm a believer that you can't be successful until you fail. But, the loss against Skidmore isn't actually going to help us if we don't learn from it.

"We circled on our schedule during the summer that this weekend was going to be a tough one for us. It's also an important one for us and we have to learn from our last game and move on."

Plattsburgh State leads the conference with a 7-0-1 mark and is 12-1-2 overall. Despite the setback to Skidmore, the Cardinals are still ranked No. 1 in Division III.

That will change, however, if the Cardinals don't get the job done this weekend.

"The poll doesn't really mean anything," Emery said. "All it means when you're ranked No. 1 is teams will get even more pumped up to play us."

Fredonia has struggled this season with a 2-4-2 conference record and a 4-9-3 overall mark. The Blue Devils' last win was a 5-0 victory over Morrisville on Nov. 21.

Fredonia's biggest problem has been finding the back of the net as junior forward Jeff Aonso (3-9-12) and junior defenseman James Muscatello (8-3-11) led the team in scoring. Junior Pat Street (2-7-3, 3.19 gaa) has done the majority of the goaltending.

The Cardinals skated to a 5-2 home win over the Blue Devils on Oct. 31.

"When you get back into conference play, you have to forget what the other team's record is," Emery said. "Fredonia is very defensive and has been a thorn in our side for a number of years.

"Talent alone won't get us a win. It will take more than that — mental toughness, emotion and sacrifice."

Buffalo State, meanwhile, has won four games in a row and stands at 3-4-1 in the SUNYAC and 8-8-1 overall.

The Bengals, who droped a 4-2 contest at Plattsburgh State on Nov. 1, are led in scoring by senior forward Jason Hill (5-25-30) and sophomore forward Nick Petriello (9-20-29). Sophomore forward and freshman forward Cory Park each have 10 goals to pace the team.

Two freshmen — Zach Grasley (4-6-1, 2.92) and Alan Fritch (4-2-0, 2.53 gaa) — have done the work between the pipes.

The Cardinals are in pretty good shape physically although defenseman Tom Breslin is not expected to play this weekend because of an injury.

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