Brockport postseason bound

Last weekend was not a surprising one for Brockport's hockey team. The team lost 7-1 Saturday to the high-flying Potsdam Cardinals, but rebounded the following Friday to defeat SUNY Morrisville 5-2. But what was surprising was what transpired within the SUNYAC. Brockport got a huge break this past week when SUNY Geneseo and Buffalo State were both declared ineligible for postseason play due to supplying financial aid to their Canadian players, which is a violation of NCAA Division III rules.

As the No. 5 seed, Genseo was a potential threat to end Brockport's postseason chances, but instead Brockport can breathe a little easier.

Facing No. 2 seeded Plattsburgh at home, it was clear Brockport wanted to play physical to slow the Cardinals down. When they get going with their talent, Plattsburgh is hard to stop.

Plattsburgh was playing without their leading scorer, Eric Satim, and top defenseman, Mike Kananagh, and Brockport wanted to take advantage of those losses.

"We wanted to get the puck in on their defense which is the weakness of their team and try to bang them and cause turnovers," Coach Brian Dickinson said. "They did a nice job of adjusting to our fore-check, but we have to avoid the odd-man rushes against a team like that."

It's understandable Brockport wanted to slow down Plattsburgh, but it looked like one team was playing a hockey game and the other team was in a UFC fight. Plattsburgh scored their first goal because Brockport players were playing more to hit a player without the puck than to play the puck handler racing down the ice.

It was only 1-0 until Kyle VanDermale got two minutes for checking from behind which put Plattsburgh down a man. This ended up being the turning point for Plattsburgh because Kyle Taylor and Jared Docking both scored short-handed, which put Brockport down 3-0.

Trailing, it looked like it was going to take a lot for Brockport to score. They were getting badly out-shot and Plattsburgh dominated puck control. Brockport gave up too many opportunities to a team they needed to play mistake-free against.

What coach Dickinson said about Friday rang true Saturday. Docking's goal that made it 3-0 completely decimated Brockport and they never recovered.

"When you give up short-handed goals, nevermind one, but two on the same power play, it deflates you," Dickinson said. "You got guys coming to the bench yelling at each other and slamming their sticks.

"That's the mental toughness we have to work on when we play the Plattsburghs and Oswegos. They keep coming, and at the end they weren't going to take their foot off the accelerator and they were going to pump as many in as they could so they can be ready for their stretch drive. We didn't handle it well tonight and the score indicates that."

Usually after games the team will file out of the locker room and hang around for a while. This was not the case Saturday. An abandoned and silent hall was all there was after the defeat.

Brockport's loan goal came from Justin Noble, making it the sixth time he has scored his team's first goal, and brought the power play streak up to eight.

Plattsburgh added to their total in the third. Matty MacLeod scored twice and Kyle Kudroch finished off the 7-1 victory.

Plattsburgh won the shots battle 52-15. Sheridan stopped 45 shots and Josh Leis only had to make 14 saves in the win.

Brockport scored three times in third period Friday, Jan. 29 to pull out a win at Morrisville 5-2.

Brockport won despite allowing Morrisville to go 2-4 on the power play. Brockport did score on the power play themselves once in five opportunities.

Tom Galiani didn't waste time getting on the board. A minute and six seconds in Galiana notched his ninth goal of the year. Rob Sgarbossa evened the score for Morrisville at 13:52 in the first.

A second period with six penalties gave both teams a tally in the period. Gregg Amato scored at 6:50 and Geoff Matzel found the net at 19:05 to tie the game at 2-2 after two periods.

The third period was all Brockport. Adam Shoff put in the game-winning goal at 4:39, Ray Tremblay scored his fifth of the year, and Brett Jendra scored the last goal in the 5-2 win.

For Jendra, it was his first goal in his collegiate career.

He has knocked on the doorstep at his first goal but never found the back of the net. He was relieved to get over that hurdle.

"It was great to finally get that one out of the way," he said. "Hopefully there will be more to follow but the important thing is we got the win."

In goal, Todd Sheridan was solid again, stopping 36 shots, and Caylin Relkoff had 27 saves for Morrisville.

Brockport has their last double-header weekend on the road when they travel to Buffalo State and Fredonia next weekend.