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March 23, 2008

Plattsburgh State men to play for NCAA title

To play for title today in Lake Placid

By JOHN CORYER

LAKE PLACID -- With just 4:27 gone in Saturday night's NCAA Division III Tournament semifinal, Plattsburgh State coach Bob Emery had seen enough.

Elmira College had jumped out to an early 2-0 lead and an irate Emery called a timeout. His words to the Cardinal players certainly didn't include how nice they looked in their red jerseys.

Plattsburgh State managed to right the ship and skate to a 6-3 victory over the Soaring Eagles to advance to the Division III national hockey championship game for the first time since the 2000-01 season.

The Cardinals will play St. Norbert, an impressive 3-0 winner over Norwich University, today at 4 p.m. at Herb Brooks Arena at the Olympic Center.

Elmira (20-4-5) grabbed the lead just 1:59 into the contest. The Soaring Eagles won a faceoff in the Plattsburgh State end and Derrick Ryan scored on a rebound from between the faceoff circles.

Then, at 4:27, the Soaring Eagles made it 2-0 when a shot from the point was deflected into the net by Rusty Masters for a power-play goal.

That's when Emery took the timeout.

"We were beating ourselves," he said. "We gave up one goal when we lost a faceoff in our end and another when we took a bad penalty.

"We were a minus-two the way I saw it, rather than Elmira being a plus-two."

"I was screened on one of the goals and the other was tipped in," said Cardinals goaltender Bryan Hince. "There wasn't a lot I could do about that.

"But I felt I was able to make the key stops when needed -- and that's what I'm supposed to do."

The Cardinals then responded and battled back to tie the score at 2 after one.

Dylan Clarke scored from in close at 10:48 to bring the Cardinals (25-4) to within a goal. Then, at 14:29, Riley Hill tallied a power-play goal on a tip-in in front to pull Plattsburgh State even.

"We didn't want to be down 2-0 going into the second period," Clarke said. "We were able to make it 2-2 and just rolled from there."

"We were pumped going into the dressing room after the first period," said Cardinals' forward Andrew Willock. "We were then able to start dominating down low and play our game. That was key to our success."

Elmira head coach Tim Ceglarski said Plattsburgh State's timeout was the turning point in the contest.

"We came out ready to play," he said. "But, Coach Emery took a great timeout. "The turning point probably came just after the timeout."

The Cardinals grabbed a 3-2 lead with 2:34 gone in the second when Clarke scored his second goal of the game, this time on the powerplay. Clarke put home a rebound of his own shot.

But Elmira tied it at 6:01. Stefan Schoen was in front to beat Hince and square it at 3-all.

However, it didn't take long for the Cardinals to retake the lead for good.

A Plattsburgh State shot hit the post and the puck deflected back to defenseman Ward Smith, who sent it into the net past Elmira goaltender Casey Tuttle at 7:38.

The Cardinals added to their lead and made it 5-3 at 14:41.

Willock skated in down the middle toward the Elmira net and finished off a great three-way passing play with Eric Satim and Clarke also involved.

The Cardinals played smart hockey with the lead in the third and held off the Soaring Eagles.

The finishing touch came at 17:28 when Joey Wilson was all alone in front of Tuttle to sneak the puck into the net and give the Cardinals a three-goal edge.

"Elmira is a great team," Emery said. "But after watching tape on them this week, I felt we were the better team.

"They score most of their goals on rushes or shots from the point. We didn't want to feed them the puck at the point and we were doing that early on.

"But we did a great job chipping the puck out in the second and third periods."

"I'm proud of the way we were able to come back a couple of times," Ceglarski said. "But, we didn't have our A' game tonight. We did a lot of puck watching in the second and third periods."

The Cardinals finished with a 28-23 shot advantage, with Hince stopping 20 of 23 shots and Tuttle 22 of 28.

The Cardinals were two-of-four on the powerplay and the Soaring Eagles, one-of-three.

The Clarke-Willock-Satim line had the big night for the Cardinals. Clarke finished with two goals and two assists, Willock a goal and two assists, and Satim, three assists.

"Once we started to get the puck into the corners, we began to play well," Emery said.

"Any guy can step up for us. We don't have any superstars -- just a lot of good players. We have a lot of heart and balance."

For the Soaring Eagles, it was a tough way to end a great season.

"Our guys didn't get the respect they were due," Ceglarski said, "I'm more proud of this team than any I have coached."

--

Plattsburgh State 6, Elmira 3

Score by periods:

Plattsburgh State 2 3 1 -- 6

Elmira 2 1 0 -- 3

First period- 1, Elm, Ryan (Asplund, Gulder)l 1:59. 2, Elm, Masters ppg (Dumoulin, R. Smith), 4;27. 3, PSU, Clarke (Satim, Willock), 10:48. 4, PSU, Hill ppg (Rolls, Wilson), 14:29. Penalties- Burke, PSU (cross-checking), 4:25, Ryan, Elm (holding the stick), 12:36.

Second period- 5, PSU, Clarke ppg (Breslin, Satim), 2:34. 6, Elm, Schoen (R. Smith), 6:01. 7, PSU, W. Smith (Clark, Willock), 7:38. 8, PSU, Willock (Satim, Clarke), 14:41. Penalties- Schrank, Elm (high sticking), 1:06. Dumoulin, Elm (boarding), 9:04. Burke, PSU (interference), 11:52.

Third period- 9, PSU, Wilson (Dennis, Breslin), 17:28. Penalties- Velich, Elm (elbowing), 3:48. Cooper, PSU (tripping), 9:00. Rolls, PSU (trippinh), 11:10. Moore, Elm (roughing), 11:10.

Shots on goal:

Plattsburgh State 10 12 6 -- 28

Elmira 8 9 6 -- 23

Goaltenders (shots-saves): Hince, PSU, 23-20. Tuttle, Elm, 28-22.

Powerplays (goals-opportunities): Plattsburgh State, 2-4. Elmira, 1-3.

Attendance: 5,600.

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