By Eric Gissendannerassociate sports editor

It has taken 139 minutes, but the Plattsburgh State men’s hockey team is back in the SUNYAC cham-pionship game. Fourth-seeded PSUC (19-7-1) will play sixth-seeded Fredonia (14-12-1) in a matchup that pits two gritty and hard-working teams against one another. Saturday’s game-winner

will not only earn the conference title, but also an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

“Our goal was to be here all along,” PSUC Head Coach Bob Em-ery said. “We’ve worked hard to get here, and it’s nice to be playing back home.”

After beating Morrisville at home and Geneseo on the road, PSUC takes on the Fredonia team that has reeled off wins at Buffalo State and

top-ranked Oswego in overtime. PSUC has gone into overtime twice this tournament.

The overtime games are attribut-ed to the SUNYACs parity Blue Dev-ils Head Coach Jeff Meredith said.

“There’s a lot of parity in our league,” Meredith said. “With this playoff format of one-shot and done, anything can happen.”

And anything may be accom-plished if Fredonia pulls off anoth-er win. Ever since the postseason tournament expanded from four to six teams in 1998, no sixth-seeded

team has reached the finals. Being the lowest seed also means that the Blue Devils have not enjoyed the confines of home-ice at all through-out this tournament.

However, Meredith said that be-ing the road team has been to the team’s advantage. Fredonia is 8-6-1 on the road, including three con-secutive away wins.

SEE MHKY, B5

BSection

Friday, March 4, 2011

C A R D I N A L P O I N T SSports

ONE LAST HURDLECardinal men looking for 3rd SUNYAC crown in 4 years

Rob Mason/Cardinal PointsThe Cards celebrate a game-winning overtime goal against Morrisville State College, Feb. 23. PSUC won 4-3 at Stafford Ice Arena to advance to the semifinals against Geneseo.

Cards lose majority of firepower next season

By Brian Cremosports editor

After a season that started with such promise, the Platts-burgh State men’s basketball team now finds themselves on a search for whom they will be—next year.

After a 87-79 loss to No. 2 Buffalo State, the No. 3 Car-dinals ended their season 17-10.

No SUNYAC championship. No NCAA tour-nament berth.

After last season’s heroics, the Cards were able to snag the SUNYAC title, along with the right to host the first two rounds of the Division III NCAA tournament.

With all but two players returning this season, PSUC had a target on their backs, and the chance at repeating is all but a dream.

“No matter what

you’re projected to do, you still have to contin-ue to work hard,” Head Coach Tom Curle said. “You consistently have to improve yourself.”

In the season Errol Daniyan described as being “the hunted,” the Cards knew what they were in for from the be-ginning.

A l t h o u g h he wasn’t able to capture his third SUNYAC c h a m p i o n -ship, he did make the All-SUNYAC sec-ond team. It’s the second time and sec-

ond year in a row he’s received an all-confer-ence honor.

“It’s always nice to get individual accolades, but I really wanted that championship,” Daniyan said.

His teammate Chris Ruiz was the lone Card to make the first team and finished second on PSUCs all-time scoring list with 1,611 points.

SEE MBBALL, B4

Ruiz

Gabe Dickens/Cardinal PointsMegan DiJulio, recently named to the All-ECAC West First Team, carries the puck up ice against Utica at Stafford Ice Arena Feb. 20. DiJulio and the Lady Cards are headed to RIT this weekend for the conference final four.

Lady Cards in fight for ECAC West titleBy Matt Hamilton

staff writer

Sixty minutes is an eternity for most.Sixty minutes of class might feel like an

entire day. Sixty minutes in a car might feel like driving 1,000 miles when it has only been 20.

A 60 minute jog might feel like a mara-thon, though really it was only enough time for three miles.

But 60 minutes is all the time the Platts-burgh State women’s hockey team will get

Saturday to determine if over four months of work will lead them to the ECAC West finals or back to campus with broken hearts.

No. 4 PSUC (19-3-3) will find out if 60 minutes against Neumann University (16-6-4) in Rochester will be enough time to yield a chance to play for an elusive ECAC West crown, Saturday in the semifinals.

After last year’s loss in the ECAC West playoffs to Elmira College, the Lady Cards know the feeling of losing and going home all too well. They’re determined to get to

the finals. But PSUC head coach Kevin Houle said

the team isn’t focused on playing in the fi-nals. They are focused on winning against Neumann.

“I think we go into the weekend real-izing it’s an opportunity for us to play two more hockey games,” Houle said. “And you can’t get to the second game unless you win the first game, so no one is thinking of game two. We’re all thinking of game one.”

SEE WHKY, B5

SUNYAC ChampionshipSaturday

Fredonia, 7 p.m.Where: Stafford Ice Arena

Plattsburgh(19-7-1)

Fredonia(14-12-1)

vs.

Plattsburgh(22-1-2)

ECAC West ChampionshipSunday - 3 p.m.

RIT./Utica vs. Plattsburgh/Neumann

Where: Ritter Arena, Rochester

ECAC West SemifinalsSaturday - 7 p.m.

No. 2 Plattsburgh vs.No. 4 Neumann

Where: Ritter Arena, Rochester

Plattsburgh(19-7-1)

Neumann(16-6-4)

vs.

ECAC West SemifinalsSaturday - 3 p.m.

No. 1 RIT vs.No. 6 Utica College

Where: Ritter Arena, Rochester

Utica(13-13-0)

vs.