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March 12, 2010

Cardinals still feel pain

Sitting out '09 Final Four 'unacceptable'

By COURTNEY LEWIS

DID YOU KNOW?


You can look back over the last 70 years at some of the area athletes and personalities who made headlines in area sports. Flashback will revive memories of great local athletes and outstanding team successes.

PLATTSBURGH — The 11 juniors and seniors on Plattsburgh State's women's hockey team know what it's like to be one of the final four teams in Division III still playing.

They, along with the sophomores, also remember clearly what it feels like to sit out while four other teams play for the championship.

The Cardinals are one win away from returning to the final four, with Norwich standing in their way.

Plattsburgh State hosts the Cadets this afternoon in the first round of the NCAA Division III Women's Ice Hockey Championship. The winner will meet Elmira or Trinity in next weekend's semifinals.

Plattsburgh State, an at-large selection, is in the tournament for the seventh straight year. The Cardinals won the national title in 2007 and 2008, and last year they lost at Amherst in the first round.

Junior defenseman Kara Buehler said once you experience the championship weekend, you're hooked. And she said not making it is "unacceptable."

"We try to tell everyone else what it feels like, but it's just so hard to have them picture being there, all the excitement of the top four teams in the country playing," Buehler said. "You definitely remember it, and you just want to keep getting back to it every year."

Norwich (18-5-5) is trying to get there for the first time. The third-year program earned its second NCAA tournament berth by winning the ECAC East playoffs. The Cadets downed Castleton in the quarterfinals and then skated past Massachusetts-Boston 8-0 and New England College 3-0 last weekend.

They're 5-1-2 in their last eight games and this week moved into the final spot in the USCHO.com Division III Women's Poll.

The Cardinals beat the Cadets 7-2 in a Jan. 26 nonconference game at Stafford Ice Arena. Norwich scored first in that game and was within two goals at the end of the first period.

"I think if you go back and look at the game that we played with them last time, it wasn't a 7-2 game," Plattsburgh State coach Kevin Houle said. "They spent a lot of time in our end, put pressure on us. So we're not overlooking them by any stretch.

"They're disciplined in the way that they play their system, so we want to make sure we do a good job playing the game in their end and keeping the puck out of our end. But I expect them to come at us."

Sophomore forward Julie Fortier ranks sixth nationally in goal scoring and leads Norwich with 22 goals and 38 points.

Last year, the Cadets lost a first-round game to Elmira on a power-play goal with just over a minute left in regulation.

Plattsburgh State (23-2-2) is coming off its own disappointment against Elmira. The Cardinals had been unbeaten in 18 games until the Soaring Eagles upended them 4-2 in last Sunday's ECAC West championship game.

That was the first time all season the Cardinals allowed more than three goals.

Buehler said they watched the video as a team Monday and saw mistakes they made in the defensive zone, and then they resolved to put the game behind them.

The blueliners are motivated to get back to their stingy ways.

"Definitely. When we gave up the two power-play goals, I felt like it was a reflection of us because it's the D zone and that's our area, and we let them penetrate that," Buehler said.

Elmira went 2-for-5 on the power play last week, while Plattsburgh State was 0-5. Norwich also won the special teams the last time it played the Cardinals.

Houle said the third-ranked Cardinals have made some adjustments in that area this week, and he added that they also need to be more disciplined than last week and play with energy for 60 minutes.

"I think we're confident," Houle said. "I think we hopefully learned a lesson from last weekend and we do come out with energy and realize that teams just aren't going to roll over for us. I'm not saying that was the case last weekend, but certainly we didn't bring our best, best game, and now's the time to do it.

"You don't have a second chance after this weekend."

E-mail Courtney Lewis at: clewis@pressrepublican.com


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