POTSDAM, N.Y.- The SUNY Potsdam Men's Hockey team came out strong from the start and never let up, as they defeated the Buffalo State Bengals 5-1 on Bear Pride Night. A power play goal by Matt Viola, late in the first, and three more tallies in the second opened up a 4-0 lead, and the Bears went on to a 5-1 victory to complete the season sweep over Buffalo State. Sy Nutkevitch paced Potsdam with a goal and three assists.
 
A raucous atmosphere led to a strong start for Potsdam, but the Bears were unable to capitalize on an early power play, as Nutkevich rang one off the post. Buffalo State evened the play, but failed on two power plays, thanks to some excellent penalty killing, and a couple of rebound saves by Kevin McFarland Late in the period the Bears earned another man advantage, this time Viola, roofed a shot past Bengals goalie Kevin Carr at 18:50 on a pass from Trevor Cope, Nutkevich also assisted on the goal to give the Bears a well deserved 1-0 lead after the first. Potsdam outshot Buffalo State 13-9.
 
The second period began with the Bengals on a power play, but once again they were thwarted. The Bears took over from there, Avgerinos, blasted a shot from the point, converting on a pass from Nutkevich to give Potsdam a 2-0 lead at 5:07.  At  9:40 a beautiful three way passing play from Nutkevich to Avgerinos and finally to Vinny Buttitta who scored gave the Bears a 3-0 lead. Less than a minute later at 10:36 Erick Ware bounced a shot in off one of a Bengals defenseman to increase the Bears advantage to 4-0. The Bengals got one back 11:01 to cut into the deficit, the period ended with a 4-1 edge for Potsdam. The Bears outshot the Bengals 13-7, holding a 26-16 advantage after two.
 
Nutkevich night continued as he dove to score on a pass from Matt Viola, it was Potsdam's third power play goal of the night and gave the Bears a 5-1 lead and finished off the scoring for the night. Buffalo State outshot Potsdam 10-9 in the third, overall the Bears held a 35-26 edge in shots on goal. Kevin McFarland made 25 saves for the Bears, while Kevin Carr turned away 30 Potsdam shots in the net for Buffalo State.
 
“We played a complete game, every aspect was sound,” said Head Coach Chris Bernard. “Our special teams were very good, as was our penalty killing and power play units and we played strong 5-5.”
 
For the game Potsdam was 3-for-7 with the man advantage, while Buffalo State finished 0-for-5.
 
Potsdam will host Fredonia State tomorrow night for Senior Night, at 7 p.m.