On Jan. 7, Plattsburgh lost to SUNY Canton, the low point of a miserable first half of a season. They were 6-8 at that point, had lost three in a row, and five out of six. In the SUNYAC, they were out of a playoff position.<\/p>\n
Since then, the Cardinals arguably have been one of the hottest teams in the country, going 11-1-1. And now, they are the 2017 SUNYAC champions and heading to the NCAA playoffs thanks to a 3-2 victory over their arch-rivals and top seed, Oswego.<\/p>\n
“We’re just finding ways to win,” Plattsburgh coach Bob Emery said. “Obviously, Brady (Rouleau) had a strong second half. You can’t win in this game if you don’t have a good goaltender. I don’t care how good you are, how bad you are, you’ve got to have good goaltending. We had it.”<\/p>\n
Rouleau, named tournament MVP, made 31 saves. He also relied on the goalies’s best friend — the posts. Oswego hit the goalpost three times.<\/p>\n
“We had chances against a team that plays very good defensively and relies on their goalie,” Oswego coach Ed Gosek said. “Those chances off the post you have to bury.”<\/p>\n
The teams played nearly half the game without a score before Schuyler Seyfert scored at 9:07 of the second when he one-timed a loose puck from the right slot into the near side.<\/p>\n
The goal quieted a raucous home crowd that hadn’t stopped cheering up to that point.<\/p>\n
Early in the third, the teams traded power-play goals. First, Plattsburgh extended its lead. As the puck bounced off the backboard, Joe Drabin at the post stuffed it in.<\/p>\n
Just 1:10 later, Shawn Hulshof jumped on a loose puck in the slot, wound up, and fired it home.<\/p>\n
The momentum was back, but less than five minutes later, Antoine Desnoyers once again quieted the crowd an a beautiful passing play down low.<\/p>\n
A quick pass from Kyle Hall from left to right down low followed by Desnoyers’ just as quick one-timer.<\/p>\n
“A picture-perfect goal,” Emery said. “You couldn’t draw it up any better than that. A big goal. It put us up 3-1 and gave us some breathing room, because we know the power they have offensively.”<\/p>\n
Kenny Neil scored with his goalie pulled to cut the lead, but it was too little, too late.<\/p>\n
Oswego (21-5-1) now has to wait on its fate.<\/p>\n
“I was disappointed in the outcome,” Gosek said. “We left it up to the hands of a committee to determine whether our body of work is good enough to continue on. I hope it is. Hopefully, we’ll get a second chance.”<\/p>\n
Plattsburgh (17-9-1) gets the automatic bid for winning the SUNYAC thanks to an amazing second half turnaround. Was it Emery’s best ever?<\/p>\n
“It’s probably the biggest ever,” Emery said. “This has also been my youngest team I ever had.”<\/p>\n
Whoever, wherever, whenever Plattsburgh plays, their opponent will have to face a team that has been red hot since Jan. 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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