BUFFALO, N.Y.—Buffalo State (8-11-2, 4-6-2 SUNYAC) raced out to a 3-0 lead before holding off the SUNY Potsdam men's hockey team (8-10-3, 4-6-2) for a 5-3 win on Saturday night. Freshman forward
Dylan Vander Esch (San Jose, Calif./Hartford Wolfpack) did his best to keep the Bears in the game with his second career hat trick.
The Bengals jumped on the Bears early in a crazy first period. At 6:21, Jake Rosen opened the scoring. Just over three minutes late, Cory Gurski doubled the lead and Rosen made it 3-0 31 seconds after that. Vander Esch finally got the Bears on the board with an unassisted tally at 11:26. However, Nick Berst answered for Buffalo State two minutes later and the Bengals led 4-1 at the break.
The Bears controlled the second period. Vander Esch scored his second at 7:20 with assists from junior forward
Jake Rivera (Pacific Palisades, Calif./Hartford Wolfpack) and sophomore forward
Vinny Caligiuri (Shoreham, N.Y./Hartford Wolfpack). The forward then completed the hat trick at 10:30 to get the Bears within 4-3. Senior assistant captain
Ken Simon (Norwell, Mass./Philadelphia Revolution) and senior defenseman
Kevin O'Connor (Ann Arbor, Mich./New Mexico Mustangs) assisted on the goal.
After killing off an early penalty, Potsdam went on the power play at 4:35 of the third period. Seemingly on the verge of tying the game, Ryan Selkeld struck for a shorthanded goal to give Buffalo State a 5-3 lead at 6:22. The Bears spent much of the rest of the period killing penalties. Junior goalie
Jon Hall (Dexter, N.Y./Stouffville Spirit) was pulled with 1:20 remaining, but Potsdam couldn't get any closer.
Hall finished with 26 saves and Bengal goaltender Mike DeLaVergne made 29 stops for the victory.
The Bears edged Buffalo State in shots 32-31. The Bengals were 0-for-7 on the power play and Potsdam finished 0-for-3.
The Bears are now in a three-way tie for fifth place with the Bengals and Brockport.
Potsdam heads to Morrisville State next weekend for two critical games as the Bears look to lock up a playoff spot.
