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For Immediate Release: March 16, 2004
Contact: Chris Gondek, SUNYAC Publicist
Cardinals
take on St. Norbert (WI) Friday in national semifinals
FREDONIA, N.Y. - The Plattsburgh State men's
ice hockey team, thanks to its dramatic 5-4 sudden death overtime win over
Curry College Saturday night, is back in the NCAA semifinals. The Cardinals,
ranked fourth in the final national poll, will oppose the top-ranked team
in Division III, St. Norbert (25-2-2), Friday at Norwich University's Kreitzberg
Arena at 3:30 p.m. Second-ranked Middlebury (24-3-0), national champion from
1995-99, will face defending champ Norwich (23-3-0) in the other semifinal
at 7:00 p.m. The winners will meet at Norwich Saturday night at 7:00 p.m.
for the NCAA Championship.
Paul Kelly (West Peabody, MA/Boston College) sent the Cardinals into
the semis with his third goal of the game with 1:51 left in the first overtime
of last Saturday's quarterfinal game with Curry College. After leading 2-1,
the Cardinals found themselves down 3-2 quickly in the third period. Kelly's
second goal equalized with under eight minutes to play in the game and SUNYAC
Tournament MVP Chad Kemp (Glencoe, ONT/Strathroy Rockets) made it 4-3
Plattsburgh with just over two minutes to play. Curry pulled its goaltender
and began a frantic charge to get the tying goal. Eighteen seconds from a
Cardinal victory, Curry's Chet Ferreira bested sophomore goaltender Craig
Neilson (Markham, ONT/Ajax Axemen) to make it 4-4 and send the game into
sudden death overtime. Early in the extra session, Neilson made a game-saving
glove save on a Curry breakaway to keep the Cards' Final Four dream alive.
The overtime remained scoreless and appeared to be headed for double OT until
the 18:09 mark when Kemp sent a shot in on goal that was followed up by Kelly
for the 5-4 Plattsburgh victory.
This year marks the 13th time Plattsburgh has advanced to the NCAA semifinals.
The Cards are 7-5 in the semifinal round and last advanced this far in 2002
when they lost 5-0 to Wisconsin-Superior, the eventual national champion.
In the seven times the Cardinals have advanced to the championship round,
they have claimed the national title three times defeating Oswego 8-3 in 1987,
three-time defending champion Wisconsin-Stevens Point 7-3 in 1992, and unbeaten
RIT 6-2 in 2001.
St. Norbert (WI), Middlebury and Norwich all participated in last year's Final
Four. The Cadets won 6-3 over St. Norbert in the semis en route to their second
national title while the Panthers were blown out by Oswego 6-0.