By Emma Deo
No. 8 Plattsburgh State Cardinals’ women’s hockey (18-5-1, 14-3-1) senior class tallied seven points in the team’s 4-0 win over the Canton Kangaroos (6-15-2, 4-11-1) on senior day Saturday.
“Our focus this weekend is just finishing out our league play strong, we’re looking for four points,” said senior defender Mattie Norton.
The final weekend of the regular season began Friday with a 3-0 win over the Kangaroos. Junior forward Molly Riggi led the way for the Cards with two goals, marking her first career multi-goal contest.
The game started off slowly, with neither team finding the back of the net in the first period.
“We just woke up honestly. We were just like, OK, we can beat this team,” said graduate forward Mae Olshansky.
The scoring came alive at the end of the second period when first-year forward Tessa Morris found fellow first-year forward Kayson Ruegge wide open, allowing Ruegge to net her fifth goal of the season.
“We’ve historically had pretty big freshman classes come in, so it’s been awesome to see them perform in their first year here,” Olshansky said.
Shortly after, Riggi found herself on a breakaway, racing past a defender but coming out on top with a top shelf goal to bring the Cardinals up 2-0 heading into the third period.
To cap off the afternoon, Riggi notched her second goal of the game on an empty-netter off a Su-An Cho assist.
Sophomore goaltender Chloe Lewis had 17 saves, marking her conference-leading eighth shutout of the year.
Plattsburgh State took the weekend one game at a time, looking to build off Friday’s win and secure the season sweep.
“We know they have a really good goalie, we only had two goals on her and then an empty net off 50 shots, we need to keep putting pucks on net for sure,” Olshansky said.
The Cards secured yet another shutout win Saturday, as they honored the squad’s four graduating seniors; Olshansky, Norton, forward Ciara Wall, and forward Bridget Orr.
The celebration did not stop there, as Norton put the Cardinals up 1-0 just three and a half minutes into the first period. About two minutes later, Orr found the back of the net as a Canton defender took her down to bring the Cards up 2-0 less than six minutes into the game.
But, Orr was not done yet and notched her second goal of the day through the five-hole off a Riggi assist at the 4:33 mark of the second period.
Olshansky added to the senior day onslaught of shots toward the end of the third period as she netted a Norton pass between the pipes on the power play.
The Cardinals’ defense stood tall until the final buzzer, and Plattsburgh cruised to a 4-0 shutout senior day win.
The final seedings for the SUNYAC playoffs will depend on the outcomes of this weekend’s series between Oswego and Cortland. However, the Cardinals achieved their goal of earning four points in the standings, which places them at the top of the conference rankings until the other games are played.
This series marked the final regular-season home games for the graduating seniors.
“Looking back, I’ve had so many great players that I’ve played with, you name it we have top-tier players every year. I think the impact of playing with people that are at that elite level has been amazing,” Norton said. “It teaches you a lot about the game but also a lot about yourself and the things you can improve on, the growth over the last four years has been the biggest thing for me.”
Olshansky expressed her gratitude for the opportunities that Plattsburgh has brought her over the last five years, both on and off the ice.
“I’ve done a lot of things I never thought I would do – broadcasting, working for the athletic department, taking photos — it’s bittersweet that it’s all coming to an end, but I’ve certainly grown up a lot in my time here,” Olshansky said.
