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February 26, 2010

Cardinals maintain good balance

By JOHN CORYER



PLATTSBURGH — It's all about the team.

The Plattsburgh State men's hockey team, despite a 17-4-4 overall record and 13-2-1 mark in the State University of New York Athletic Conference, doesn't have any players on the all-conference first team this season.

However, that typifies the Cardinals.

"We have a real balanced team in every sense of the word," said Plattsburgh State head coach Bob Emery. "We've had guys out of the lineup with injuries this year and others out for other reasons. And, some of our players aren't having the years they've had in the past. But we have been the epitome of a team with whoever has been in the lineup."

The defending champion and second-seeded Cardinals begin postseason play tonight when they host Brockport in a SUNYAC Tournament semifinal at 7 p.m. at the Stafford Ice Arena.

The other semifinal has top-seeded and regular season conference champion Oswego hosting Morrisville. Tonight's two winners will meet for the SUNYAC title next Saturday at the site of the higher seed.

The Cardinals, who won four games in a row to finish the regular season, come into the weekend in good shape mentally and physically.

"We want to keep a good balance of skating four lines and six defensemen," Emery said. "We want to wear teams down.

"Cody Adams was our best plus-minus defenseman this season and he is out. But, this is the one of the first times this season where we have had just about the entire team ready to go. But that doesn't guarantee a win. We have a team of hard workers and if we do all the little things, big things will happen for us."

Fourth-seeded Brockport skated to a 3-0 win at home over Potsdam on Tuesday as senior goaltender Todd Sheridan posted the shutout with 27 saves and James Cody scored two goals, one into an empty net.

"Sheridan is a first team all-SUNYAC goalie and he has had a great career," Emery said. "I'm sure he would like nothing better than to end his career with a win at Plattsburgh.

"You can see in the Olympics with Ryan Miller how much a goalie has a say in the outcome. The goaltender position is so important.

"We have to play well defensively. We have to be prepared to win a 1-0 game — we need to take that kind of approach. It's always a case for us to get the puck in deep and to the net where we have to outman and outwork our opponent for rebounds."

The Cardinals have also done a good job staying out of the box and that's a key in any game.

"We need to take advantage of special teams and continue to stay out of the box," Emery said.

Brockport (14-11-1, 7-8-1) have 10 players with 10 points or more, led by sophomore Cody (13-14-27), junior Ray Tremblay (6-19-25) and sophomore Ian Finnerty (7-14-21).

Sheridan, a 6-3, 205-pound senior, covers a lot of the net and is 11-10-1 on the season, with a goals-against of 3.02.

Plattsburgh State counters with 15 players with 10 points or more and two others with nine. The Cardinals are led in scoring by junior Dylan Clarke (7-17-24), junior Eric Satim (10-13-23) and sophomore Kyle Kudroch (13-8-21).

The Cardinals have two freshman goalies who has shared time in net — Josh Leis (7-3-3, 1.63 gaa) and Ryan Williams (10-1-1, 1.89 gaa.

Plattsburgh State played Brockport twice in the regular season — a 4-1 home victory and then a 7-1 decision on the road.

Originally, it looked like Plattsburgh State might play third-seeded Fredonia in the semifinals. But, the Blue Devils were stunned in overtime 3-2, at home by surprising Morrisville, the sixth seed, on Tuesday.

Note: There are still a large number of tickets available at the door for tonight's game.

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