{"id":28713,"date":"2006-11-17T15:44:10","date_gmt":"2006-11-17T21:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2006\/11\/17\/this-week-in-the-sunyac-nov-17-2006\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:56:42","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:56:42","slug":"this-week-in-the-sunyac-nov-17-2006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2006\/11\/17\/this-week-in-the-sunyac-nov-17-2006\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week In The SUNYAC: Nov. 17, 2006"},"content":{"rendered":"
Plattsburgh has never finished below .500 in the SUNYAC. Not once. The closest they have come was two years ago when they ended up 7-7. Many of the Cardinals’ faithful must be wondering if this is the year a non-winning conference record finally occurs. Recently, they don’t seem to be skating on solid ice.<\/p>\n
In the past two weekends, Plattsburgh has garnered just a single point. They are now 1-3-1 in conference play.<\/p>\n
“It’s hard to figure out,” Plattsburgh coach Bob Emery admitted. “You look at the box scores and watch the video. We’re not really getting outplayed. We have been on the road a long time, but that’s just an excuse. Great teams find a way to win. We’re not finding ways to win right now. We’re not getting the timely goals and timely saves.”<\/p>\n
That was evident this past weekend in their game against Brockport when the Cardinals took a 2-0 lead including a shorthanded goal, but were unable to put the Golden Eagles away. Brockport came back to score two power play goals to tie it. Plattsburgh again took the lead, but again they couldn’t hold it thanks to a fluke goal where the puck was stuck unknowingly in a Plattsburgh’s defender’s shirt and fell out into his own goal. That goal came with 1:33 left in the regulation. Even outshooting Brockport, 4-0, in the extra period didn’t make a difference.<\/p>\n
“We’ve had a hard time when we lose the momentum, getting it back,” Emery said. “We get down on ourselves, the guys try to do too much on their own, and we lose confidence.”<\/p>\n
That was evident in the Geneseo game. Plattsburgh took the early 1-0 lead, but then Geneseo rolled with four unanswered goals, the last an empty netter, to win 4-1.<\/p>\n
It isn’t time to hit the panic button, yet. Plattsburgh has come out of slumps before, and they know when to peak at the right time. Plus, like Emery states, it’s not like they are being outplayed in various facets of the game. Anyone thinking the Cardinals are down and out, do so on their own peril. However, they can’t afford anymore poor weekends, or they will face their first conference losing record.<\/p>\n
Another team that is looking for solid ice after last weekend is Fredonia. Actually, the Blue Devils are just looking for a goal. They scored zero over the weekend.<\/p>\n
“We’re just not scoring goals,” Fredonia coach Jeff Meredith stated the obvious. “It’s our inability to get the puck to the net in Grade A situations. We forget quickly how we generate scoring chances. We’re passing up opportunities.”<\/p>\n
Despite letting up eleven goals over the weekend, Meredith is quick to not blame the goaltending for Fredonia’s woes.<\/p>\n
“Our goaltending is not my issue,” he said. “You have to throw the highs and lows out and look at the real issues. He [Pat Street] gave up two goals to Cortland earlier in the year and we lost because we only scored once. He gave up two goals to St. Norbert, and we tied.”<\/p>\n
A lot of coaches will tell you that their goal is to let up only three goals in a game, and let the offense do the rest.<\/p>\n
“Three is the magic number,” Meredith said. “If we get three, we’re getting a point. If we don’t get three, we’re not getting a point.”<\/p>\n
To state the obvious — if you score zero goals, you are going to get zero points.<\/p>\n