By JOHN CORYER
PLATTSBURGH — The Plattsburgh State men's hockey team has a State University of New York Athletic Conference showdown at top-ranked Oswego Saturday night.
But, that game, which has already been sold out, will lose a little bit of the luster for the Cardinals if they don't take care of business tonight at Cortland (7 p.m. start).
The Red Dragons (7-12, 4-6) are in the SUNYAC Tournament hunt, tied for fourth place with Brockport and Geneseo.
Plattsburgh State (12-2-4, 8-1-1) can ill afford to slip up against a Cortland team it beat, 5-1, early in the regular season at the Stafford Ice Arena.
"Cortland will be pumped up to play us — we're a big game on everyone's schedule," said Plattsburgh State head coach Bob Emery. "We haven't had an easy time with Cortland.
"It's crunch time in the league for everyone and there's a lot at stake for everyone."
Oswego (18-1, 10-0), currently the top-ranked Division III team in the country, has won 17 games in a row and knocked off the Cardinals, 5-2, early this season in Plattsburgh.
The Lakers can take a giant step at locking up the SUNYAC regular season title this weekend and home ice throughout the tournament with wins over Potsdam tonight and the Cardinals.
A loss to either Cortland or Oswego will likely spell the end of the Cardinals' chances of finishing first in the regular season. Plattsburgh State would need to win all its remaining conference games in order to have a chance of overtaking the Lakers.
Oswego holds a three-point lead over the second-place Cardinals. Even if Plattsburgh State wins out, it would still need the Lakers to lose another game along the way.
"No doubt about it, we need two wins this weekend," Emery said. "We have to win every remaining game and still get some help."
The Cardinals enter the weekend following conference wins at Geneseo (4-3) last Friday and Brockport (7-1) on Saturday.
Cortland, meanwhile, dropped a 5-0 home decision to Fredonia on Friday before bouncing back with a 4-2 win over Buffalo State on Saturday.
The Red Dragons, who have used four goaltenders this season, have a couple of high-scoring forwards in senior Patrick Palmisano (11-14-25) and Jarrett Gold (12-10-22).
Oswego, which skated to home wins over Buffalo State (10-1) and Fredonia (3-1) a weekend ago, is putting up video games offensive numbers. The high-scoring Lakers have tallied 105 goals in 19 games and have allowed just 32.
Eric Selleck (17-24-41), Chris Laganiere (14-23-37) and Justin Fox (10-25-35) are the leading scorers for Oswego. To put that in perspective, the leading scorer for Plattsburgh State, which has only lost twice thus far, is Eric Satim (10-13-23).
Kyle Gunn-Taylor (12-0, 1.58 goals-against-average) and Paul Beckwith (6-1, 1.86 gaa) are the Lakers' goaltenders.
The Cardinals will be without the services of an injured Satim and an ill defenseman Mike Kavanagh this weekend.
"We have to play the hand that we've been dealt," Emery said. "There are no excuses and we have to buckle down. We've faced a lot of adversity this year and hopefully it will make us strong at the end.
"I've said all along that we're a work in progress. We're trying to get better all the time and look at the small picture."
