This Week: Cards Host Panthers and Ponies
By Jim Reisdorf

Well now that the SUNYAC schedule is back under way, and Plattsburgh has made its longest road trip of the year traveling out to western New York it’s now time to play at home for a while. Six of the Cardinals last eight games in the regular season will be played in the friendly confides of the Stafford Ice Arena, with the only road games left to play are Oswego and Cortland in the end of February. Tuesday night the Cardinals will host the Middlebury Panthers; this will be the 32nd meeting between the two teams with Middlebury leading the all time series 19-9-3.

Middlebury comes into Tuesday nights game with an overall record of 12-2-1; they are 9-1-1 and ranked #5 in the last USCHO.com online poll (Jan, 19th). The Panthers are lead up front by, senior forward Jamie McKenna (11-14-25), junior forward John Sullivan (14-7-21) and freshman forward Martin Drolet (10-9-19). The three forwards have combined for 18 power play goals for Middlebury, each accounting for 6. Coach Bill Beaney has split time in goal between senior net minder Doug Raeder and freshman John Yanchek. Raeder enters the week with a 4-2-1record on the season; a .882 save percentage and 2.59 goals against average. He was named the MVP of the Primelink Great Northern Shootout held in Middlebury earlier in the season. John Yanchek enters the week 8-0-0 for the season with a .916 save percentage and 2.32 goals against average.

The Panthers are averaging 4.73 goals per game while giving up just 2.47; they are averaging 5 penalties per game for 12 minutes. Their opponents are taking 7.3 penalties per game for 18.5 minutes. This game looks to be one for the ages; Plattsburgh seemed to have righted the ship after the Skidmore game while Middlebury has won 5 out of the last 6, with that one non win being a tie. I expect Hince to be in net for Plattsburgh but we will have to wait and see who Coach Beaney decides to go with for the Panthers.

On Saturday night Plattsburgh will host the newest member of the SUNYAC conference, the Morrisville State Mustangs. Morrisville comes into the weekend with an overall record of 5-13-1 and 1-8-1 in the SUNYAC. For a team coming up from NJCAA level, Morrisville has done a good job of recruiting and has started to put together a team that will compete for the playoffs in coming years; already this year they have a tie against #11 Oswego and a big win against Geneseo last weekend in Geneseo’s rink.

The Mustangs come into the weekend lead by junior forward Andrew Alarie (9-8-17), sophomore forward Rob Sgarbossa (3-12-15) and junior forward Keith Williams (7-7-14). These three skaters have accounted for 7 special team points, 6 power play goals and 1 short handed goal. In net for Morrisville has been sophomore Caylin Relkoff, with a record of 5-10-1. Relkoff has a .890 save percentage and 4.33 goals against average. Backing up Relkoff is sophomore Dave Labaff who is 0-2-0 with a .835 save percentage and 5.65 goals against average.

Morrisville is averaging 3.11 goals per game while giving up 4.79. The Mustangs are averaging 9.1 penalties per game for 20.7 minutes, while their opponents are averaging 7.4 penalties for 15.8 minutes. On paper this is another one of those games that Plattsburgh should win. When these two teams met earlier in the season Plattsburgh won 8-3, however the scoreboard doesn’t always tell the story of the game. Morrisville played a good game and the game was a lot closer than what the scoreboard said it was. Morrisville has gotten better, and Plattsburgh has come together more as a team. I expect another good game out of the Mustangs and wouldn’t be surprised if this game was won by 2 goals or less.

Plattsburgh enters this weeks games at 14-1-2 overall and 9-0-1 in the SUNYAC. After a physical weekend out west it will be interesting to see what kind of physical shape the Cardinals are in come Tuesday night. According to Coach Emery this weekend, Tommy Breslin is questionable for Tuesday’s game because of his bad shoulder. At the time that I’m writing this Behind the Bench has not even been recorded so who knows if we have any other injury issues.

Plattsburgh is lead up front by sophomore forward Dylan Clarke (11-14-25), junior forward Joey Wilson (13-8-21), junior forward Phil Farrow (6-15-21) and sophomore forward Eric Satim (9-8-17). Satim leads the team in power play goals with 6, followed by Wilson with 5 and Farrow with 4. Wilson, freshman forward Kyle Taylor and sophomore defenseman Ryan Corry each have a short handed goal on the year.

Between the pipes for the Cardinals has been sophomore Bryan Hince. With a shutout this past weekend against Buffalo State Hince upped his season total to 4 and career total to 6. Hince now has a season record of 13-1-2 with a .924 save percentage and 1.92 goals against average. Backing up Hince is senior goalie Chris Molinaro who has a season record of 1-0-0; a .875 save percentage and 3.05 goals against average.

Plattsburgh is averaging 4.71 goals per game while giving up just 2.06. The Cardinals are the second least penalized team in the country behind only Wesleyan College. The Cards are averaging just 5.6 penalties per game for just 11.8 minutes; while their opponents are averaging 8.5 penalties per game for 20.1 minutes.

My predictions:
Plattsburgh 4
Middlebury 3

Plattsburgh 6
Morrisville 3

Till Next Week!
Jim