I don't have any rosters or anything, so this is all from memory, although
I did read the game stories both Fri and Sat in the Plattsburgh Press-
Republican (Heather calls it the "Press-Repulsive").
 
As Greg Wegner posted, Salem State won the Cardinal Classic, beating host
Plattsburgh 4-1 in the final Saturday night.  I saw both of Plattsburgh's
games, having made the trip with my fiancee Heather Neely.  As last year's
manager, Heather was presented with her NC$$ championship ring Friday and
as you can imagine, she is very proud of it. :-)
 
Plattsburgh was not as dominating as I'd expected them to be, and from
comments of others they didn't look anything like the team that was 32-2-2
last season, but I saw two pretty good hockey games nonetheless.  I guess I
thought they were good games because I didn't have a rooting interest in
the home team. :-)
 
As Greg said, New England College, picked to finish near the bottom of the
ECAC East, was fired up and played a tremendous game in the semifinal and
Plattsburgh was fortunate to escape with a 7-4 win.  NEC didn't have much
of an offense, but their defense was outstanding for most of the game as
well as their goaltending.  Only several power plays and determination on
the part of Plattsburgh allowed them to finally rack up some goals in the
third period and go on to the win after NEC had taken an early 3-2 lead in
the third.
 
One of the problems I think Plattsburgh will run into this season is that
being defending SUNYAC/ECAC West/DivIII champions, every team they play
will be gunning for them and if they're not up for every game, they will
pay.  The coaching staff probably tried to drill that into their heads
before the season, but this weekend gave them tangible evidence of that.
 
In the final, Salem State earned a 4-1 win and the tourney championship,
and Salem looked good enough to perhaps improve upon their third-place
finish in last year's DivIII championships.  The Vikings have two solid
goaltenders in Gregorio and Bonvie, with Bonvie being named to the all-
tourney team after playing the championship game.  They also have the
Seabury triplets who transferred to Salem last year from Lowell; I think at
least one Seabury was in on almost every goal and Glenn was named the
tourney MVP.  Salem played superb defense and outshot Plattsburgh something
like 39-29.  They'll be out at DivI Air Force next weekend which should be
an interesting series, one of the better DivIII teams Air Force will play.
 
I don't know how good Plattsburgh potentially will be, but apparently a lot
of players did not return who were eligible to return, other than the four
graduating seniors.  They seem to be a bit weak and inexperienced on
defense although their offense is quite powerful.  Goaltender Mike Mondello
was hung out to dry a few times and Salem was quick to take advantage of
this.
 
In all, it was a lot of fun in my first trip to see a game at Plattsburgh.
The fans were great (until Salem went up 4-1 and the place emptied in a
hurry); both games were sold out or close to being sold out with a row of
fans standing on the perimeter around the bleachers and behind the glass on
the balcony.  I wouldn't mind transplanting some of those folks to
Merrimack. :-)
---
Mike Machnik    [log in to unmask]   Color Voice of the Merrimack Warriors
(Any opinions expressed above are strictly those of the poster.)    *HMN*