By Emma Deo
The Plattsburgh State Cardinals women’s hockey team (19-6-1, 14-3-1) got its revenge after last year’s SUNYAC championship loss to the Cortland Red Dragons (17-5-4, 12-4-2), knocking them out of the semifinals with a 2-0 shutout win March 1.
“At this point, it was win or go home, so we won,” Plattsburgh State head coach Kevin Houle said.
Graduate forward Ciara Wall notched her sixth goal of the season for the game-winner late in the first period, while first-year forward Tessa Morris sealed the win with an empty-netter in the third period.
“When Tessa scored that empty net goal was really when we all started celebrating,” graduate student forward Mae Olshansky said. “It was a really fun environment to be in. It was awesome.”
The matchup was largely defensive, with both squads only putting up 43 total shots. The first period started off with few stoppages as neither team drew a penalty. The Cardinals won the first period shot battle 9-5.
“We had to stay on that gas pedal. Not all of the shots might be going in, but we keep the pressure on, and at some point it’s going to happen and they’re going to fold,” senior defender Mattie Norton said.
Plattsburgh finally busted the game open with under a minute left in the first period when junior forward Molly Riggi freed the puck from the boards and passed the puck to Olshansky. Olshansky then found Wall wide open in front of the goal as she fired it past the Cortland goaltender to put the Cards up 1-0.
Plattsburgh held on to that lead until the buzzer, heading into the locker room with the advantage.
“I think our strongest point was we played defense first. We obviously want to score as many goals as we can, but we also know that we have to be strong in our own zone,” Norton said.
The second period showcased strong defensive efforts from both teams. Only six total shots were taken over the 20-minute stretch.
“I think really just building on that defensive zone like that honestly won us the game against Cortland, not giving them any opportunities and then capitalizing on the opportunities we did get,” Olshansky said.
The Cardinals had the lead but the game was not over yet.
The Cortland offense woke up in the third period, with the Red Dragons outshooting the Cardinals 12-11. However, sophomore goaltender Chloe Lewis was able to defend everything that came her way, posting her 10th shutout of the season with a 20-save performance.
Lewis leads the SUNYAC in goals against average with 0.92.
“We didn’t really give up a lot of chances for Cortland; they didn’t really get any good, grade A opportunities, but any chance they did get, Chloe was there to shut them out,” Olshansky said.
In the last minute of play in the third period, Cortland pulled their goalie, giving them an extra skater to put pressure on the Cards.
After winning the face-off, Plattsburgh had control of the puck along the boards. Riggi pulled away with it, skating up the ice until she found Morris, who put the puck between the pipes for the empty net goal, locking in the win.
The final buzzer did not sound yet, but the crowd at the Ronald B. Stafford arena erupted, and the Cards skated away with the 2-0 win, knocking the Red Dragons out of the tournament.
“For us to come back after last year, how they came into our home rink and took something away from us, it was nice to get that revenge. I think it gave us the right energy going into this week, and it was just a great team win all together,” Norton said.
On the other side of the bracket, the first-seeded Oswego State Lakers hosted the fourth-seeded Canton Kangaroos for another semifinal matchup. The Lakers put up two goals in the second period to give them the lead, which they did not surrender. The Kangaroos were able to get a puck past the Oswego goalie late in the third period but Oswego held on for the 2-1 win, sending them to take on the second-seeded Cardinals in the SUNYAC championship Saturday, March 8 at 3:00 p.m.
Since 2007, the Cards are 48-3-2 over the Lakers, going on a 25 game win streak from Feb. 3, 2007 to Nov. 19, 2016. Plattsburgh has netted 235 total goals against Oswego, averaging 4.43 per contest.
This season, the Cards have gone 1-1-1 with the Lakers, notching a 2-0 win, a 2-0 loss and a 2-2 overtime tie. In the tie, the Lakers were able to win the shootout 1-0, which was played out to avoid an issue with a tiebreaker in the SUNYAC standings.
“They do things differently than Cortland, but we want to play our game. We want to go out there with the attitude that we’re going to run out and play like we did today,” Houle said.
