POTSDAM, NY – The Cortland men's hockey team scored three times in the second period and hung on for a 3-2 road victory at Potsdam in State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) action on Saturday evening. Cortland improves to 11-10-1 (8-6-1 SUNYAC), while Potsdam drops to 7-12-2 (4-8-2 SUNYAC).
Dino Mannetta (Wading River/PAL Jr. Islanders),
Garrett Krieger (Skaneateles/Utica Jr. Comets), and
Colby Seitz (Eden/Corpus Christi IceRays) each tallied a goal for the Red Dragons.
Nolan Suggs (White Lake, MI/El Paso Rhinos) stopped 25 shots in goal for his second straight win.
Jakub Hall and Mathieu Parent each scored a goal for Potsdam, and Lenny Perno made 26 saves in goal for the Bears.
The Red Dragons had an 11-8 edge in shots on goal in the opening period, but Perno stopped all 11 shots he faced in the period. Potsdam also tallied the first goal of the game in the closing seconds to take a 1-0 lead into the intermission, as Hall took a pass below the Cortland goal line, skated towards the Cortland net and was able to finish off his own rebound past Suggs with 1.7 seconds left in the period.
Cortland scored two goals in the span of 70 seconds early in the second period to take a 2-1 lead.
Mannetta intercepted a clearance attempt by the Bears in the Cortland offensive zone, skated down the left side towards the goal, an fired a shot that went by Perno and off the back crossbar of the goal, where the referee correctly ruled that the puck had crossed the goal line, to tie the game at 1-1 3:40 into the period.
Just over a minute later,
Justin Legault (Oakville, ON/Burlington Cougars) skated in towards the Potsdam goal, then slid a pass to Krieger for a shot into the right corner of the net to make it 2-1.
Seitz extended Cortland's lead to 3-1 with just over eight minutes left in the second period.
Sam Christiano (Buffalo/Buffalo Jr. Sabres) started a breakout from the Cortland defensive zone with a pass to Seitz. Seitz flipped a pass over to
JC Humphreys (Canonsburg, PA/Rochester Jr. Americans) down the right side, who skated into the Cortland offensive zone and returned a pass back to Seitz at the left faceoff circle. Seitz lifted a wrist shot just under the crossbar for his second goal in the last three games.
Cortland carried it two-goal advantage into the second intermission, with Suggs stopping all seven shots he faced in the period.
Cortland started the third period on the power play after a cross checking penalty after the whistle at the end of the second period, but the Red Dragons could not add an insurance goal with the man advantage.
Potsdam had a pair of power-play opportunities after penalties by the Red Dragons for tripping and interference, but the Red Dragon defense shut down those chances with the help of five saves from Suggs on those two penalty kills.
Late in the period, Potsdam pulled Perno for an extra attacker, and pulled to within a goal with one minute remaining after a goal by Parent. However, Cortland was able to prevent Potsdam from registering any shots on target in the final minute to secure the victory.
