Potsdam came into their game at Geneseo hoping to hang onto a playoff
\nspot. They left with renewed hopes of hosting a playoff game. After a
\nslow start, the Bears scored four straight goals to defeat Geneseo, 4-1.
\n Combined with losses by Cortland and Buffalo State, Potsdam is now tied
\nwith both those teams for fourth place.<\/p>\n
“Obviously, it’s a huge win for the program,” Potsdam coach Aaron Saul
\nsaid. “Our goal was to make the playoffs this year. We’re not there
\nyet, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. Character win
\nfor our guys.”<\/p>\n
It didn’t start out that way as Geneseo also desperately needed a win to
\nstay in the playoff hunt. The Ice Knights came out and quickly got on
\nthe scoreboard at 1:50 thanks to an early penalty by Potsdam.<\/p>\n
Geneseo controlled the puck with crisp passing and it paid off when
\nTrent Cassan from behind the net found Mathieu Cyr in front at the
\nopposite post. Cyr had no trouble one-timing it past Rick Miller who
\ncould not move over in time.<\/p>\n
Another early penalty by Potsdam gave Geneseo another opportunity, but
\nthis time the Bears killed it off. However, Geneseo consistently kept
\nthe puck in the Potsdam zone, eventually outshooting the Bears in the
\nfirst period, 11-3.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s hard to travel,” Saul said. “We’re right in that time
\nperiod where it’s four hours, whether we should go the night before or
\nthe day of. You try to get here as early as possible for the guys to
\nget their legs warmed up, but it’s still a four hour bus ride and
\nobviously it took us a period to wake up from that.”<\/p>\n
One of those three shots turned the game around at 13:27. Potsdam
\nstarted what looked to be an innocent rush, but Mitch West’s shot fooled
\nDerek Jokic. It was West’s second collegiate goal, but his second in a
\nrow, the last coming a few weeks ago against Manhattanville before he
\nwas knocked out and missed the games in between.<\/p>\n
“Looks like he’s got the scoring bug,” Saul joked. “He doesn’t remember
\nthe first one, so I’m glad he remembers this one. Obviously, he brings
\nso much more to the team than scoring, but he’s playing great, he’s good
\ndown low, and he’s really working at it, and it’s good to see a guy like
\nthat get a goal. Hopefully, he can make it three in a row tomorrow night.”<\/p>\n
In fact, Potsdam returned a number of players to the lineup coming off
\ninjuries, and that turned out to be the difference.<\/p>\n
“We finally got some guys back in the lineup,” Saul said. “Three out of
\nthe four goals tonight were from guys who haven’t been in the lineup the
\npast two to three weeks. We’re excited about that and happy they are
\nback in the lineup.”<\/p>\n
Two of the other goals were scored by Luke Beck, the first being the
\nlone second period tally as Potsdam came out strong to reverse the game.<\/p>\n
“We had a good talk after the first period,” Saul said. “We knew we
\nwere lucky to come in tied 1-1. They had all the momentum, and we get
\none goal and that changes everything. Our guys decided that they were
\ngoing to finish their checks and play a little harder, and I thought we
\ndominated the second period.”<\/p>\n
Beck scored at 5:55 on a slow moving three-on-one breakout. Connor
\nTreacy brought the puck into the zone down the left side. His shot was
\nsaved by Jokic, but the rebound came out the other side knee high. Beck
\nwas there to bat it in.<\/p>\n
The Bears just missed scoring six minutes later in a wild scramble in
\nthe crease.<\/p>\n
Geneseo beefed up their game in the third period and had a two-man
\nadvantage for a full minute midway through the period. However, Miller
\nstopped everything thrown his way. Though he did get some help from a
\ngoaltender’s best friend — a Geneseo shot from the side smacked the
\ninside of the opposite post and somehow did not go in.<\/p>\n
“I thought he played a great first period because we came out kind of
\nslow and sluggish and Rick really held us in there and did a great job,
\nand obviously on the five-on-three he was great and made some
\nunbelievable saves,” Saul said.<\/p>\n
Soon after the penalties were over, Potsdam scored the back breaker on a
\ntwo-on-none breakaway. Greg Lee kept the puck, went to his backhand,
\nand made Jokic make the first move before putting it past him.<\/p>\n
Beck got his second of the night on another odd-man rush, this time a
\nthree-on-one. Treacy passed it off to Beck who didn’t waste the
\nopportunity.<\/p>\n
“Luke is a really tough kid,” Saul said. “Played with a lot of pain.
\nIt was pretty evident he couldn’t go, so we held him. But he targeted
\nthis weekend to be back, and he’s back in a big way.”<\/p>\n
Miller ended the game with 34 saves.<\/p>\n
Potsdam (5-6-3, 8-11-4) goes to Brockport Saturday night to face a team
\nthat just got eliminated from playoff contention in a 4-2 loss to
\nPlattsburgh.<\/p>\n
“You never know,” Saul said in what he expects from Brockport. “It’s
\nalways a tough situation when you’re an athlete and your season is over
\ngoing in and still having to play some games. We expect still a hard
\nfought battle. These guys played together for four years and I’m sure
\nthey want to go out on a winning note. We’ll be ready for them.”<\/p>\n
Geneseo (5-9-0, 6-16-0) must win their last two games for any hope of
\nmaking the playoffs, and then they need some help from at least one of
\nthose teams tied for fourth. It won’t be easy for the Ice Knights as
\nthey host Plattsburgh next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Potsdam came into their game at Geneseo hoping to hang onto a playoff spot. They left with renewed hopes of hosting a playoff game. After a slow start, the Bears scored four straight goals to defeat Geneseo, 4-1. Combined with losses by Cortland and Buffalo State, Potsdam is now tied with both those teams for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8706"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8706"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}