PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – The Norwich University men's ice hockey team struggled in its first game as the newly-minted No. 1-ranked team in the country on Tuesday night against Plattsburgh State in non-conference action at the Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena.
Plattsburgh State (11-2-1, 8-1-0 SUNYAC) scored four second period goals en route to a 4-1 victory to hand the Cadets their first loss of the 2014-15 season.
Norwich (11-1-1, 7-0-0 ECAC East) struggled to complete passes and finish scoring chances in a frustrating evening against its Lake Champlain rivals.
After a scoreless first period that was relatively even, Plattsburgh needed just 38 seconds to finally open the scoring in the middle stanza. Senior forward Connor Toomey scored his first of two goals on the night on a breakaway after Michael Cassidy blocked a NU defense to defense pass along the blue line. Cassidy head manned the puck up to Toomey who streaked in alone on NU freshman goalie Braeden Ostepchuk (Lethbridge, Alberta).
Toomey fired a wrist shot glove side on Ostepchuk that beat the rookie net minder and gave Plattsburgh a lead it would never look back from.
Toomey scored again just 1:22 later when he was left all alone on the doorstep of the crease on a Plattsburgh power play. Toomey shoveled a crossing from Luke Baleshta from the near half boards into a wide-open net to make it 2-0 Cardinals.
Baleshta made it 3-0 at the 13:26 mark, firing a puck into the back of the net on an odd-man rush from the left faceoff circle off a feed from Mark Constantine.
Connor Gorman capped the Plattsburgh scoring on the night by backhanding a loose puck in the crease into the net that Ostepchuk couldn't cover in time. Preston Kaye notched the assist on the goal after taking the initial shot.
Norwich broke up the shutout with 18 seconds left with an extra skater on the ice as junior forward Dean Niezgoda (Brewster, Mass.) picked up his fifth goal of the season off assists from William Pelletier (St. Jean Chrysostome, Quebec) and Alec Brandrup (Rochester, Minn.)
Plattsburgh State junior goalie Spencer Finney was impressive in net for the Cardinals making 30 saves on 31 shots.
Ostepchuk suffered the first loss of his collegiate career, making 14 saves on 18 shots before pulled at the start of the third period. Ostepchuk dropped to 6-1-0 on the season. Senior goalie Matic Marinsek (Ljubljana, Slovenia) came on for the third period, stopping all nine shots he faced in his first action of the season.
Norwich beat Plattsburgh State 5-1 earlier this season in the opening round of the PrimeLink Great Northern ShootOut. The Cadets are now 0-3-1 in their last four games at the Stafford Ice Arena with two losses to Plattsburgh, a loss to UW-Superior and a tie against Middlebury.
The Cadets will look to get back on track on Friday, Jan. 9 when they host UMass-Boston in a crucial ECAC East showdown at 7 p.m. at Kreitzberg Arena. NU will then host two-time reigning ECAC East Tournament champion Babson on Saturday at 4 p.m.
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