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November 16, 2007

Cardinal skaters face unbeaten Elmira

By JOHN CORYER

PLATTSBURGH -- Plattsburgh State head men's hockey coach Bob Emery isn't worried about his young team getting overconfident following its surprising 7-0 start to the 2007-08 season.

"I'm not concerned about overconfidence," he said. "A team needs to have confidence in itself.

"I'm more concerned with having our team work hard every day in practice and in games."

So far, the Cardinals have done just that with an unbeaten record -- all coming in State University of New York Athletic Conference play.

Plattsburgh State, for the first time this season, jumps into non-conference action tonight at 7 p.m. on the road against a very good Elmira College team.

"It's going to be a tough game for us -- Elmira plays really good defense," Emery said. "We have to make sure we play good defense and, hopefully, the offense will take care of itself.

"Elmira has played a tough schedule so far and has come out of it unscathed. This might be our toughest game so far this season."

The Soaring Eagles are also unbeaten at 4-0-1.

Elmira went 1-0-1 against defending NCAA Division III champion Oswego in a home-and-home to begin the season, winning by a 2-1 score in Oswego and then skating to a 4-all tie in Elmira.

The Soaring Eagles' last game was a 3-0 shutout of Buffalo State, another SUNYAC team, on Tuesday.

Elmira is doing the job defensively, with sophomore Casey Tuttle sporting a 1.77 goals-against-average in net for the Soaring Eagles.

"This is an important game outside the conference for us," Emery said. "Elmira won some big games outside their conference last season and it helped them get into the NCAA Tournament."

The Cardinals have been getting balanced scoring, with 13 players having five points or more in the first seven games. Forward Riley Hill leads the way with 11 points (six goals, five assists) and is followed by defensemen Ward Smith with 10 (four goals, six assists).

Freshman Bryan Hince sports a 5-0 record in net with a 1.00 goals-against-average and classmate Simon LeBlanc is 2-0 thus far, with a 2.00 gaa.

The Cardinals are off to one of their best starts in recent years, but Emery is keeping everything in perspective.

"We haven't played a tough schedule so far, except for the weekend on the road at Buffalo State and Fredonia," he said. "But, we have to learn to crawl before we walk with a young team like this.

"We have been getting timely saves and goals. We were a real good team last year, but we didn't get the big goal or the big save at times when we needed to. This year, we have been doing that."

The Elmira game will be the fifth straight on the road for the Cardinals, who return home to host the PrimeLink Shootout on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 23-24, with top-ranked Middlebury College, Norwich University and St. John's (Minn.) making for a formidable field.

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