Chris Luker (New Hartford, NY) and Chris Cangro
(Holbrook, NY) scored goals within a minute of each other in the second
period for The College at Brockport Hockey team but an early 4-0 lead
for Buffalo State and a late three-goal flurry in the second period gave
the Bengals a 7-2 victory Wednesday night in the first round of the
State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Tournament at
the Buffalo State Ice Arena in Buffalo.
The loss snapped a four-game win streak for the Golden Eagles (10-13-3) who moved from outside the playoff picture to the No. 5 seed in the tournament with the last four wins of the season.
"This is not the way you want to end a season," said head coach Brian Dickinson. "I thought we did a great job in the third period after the way the second period ended and we had some scoring chances but just couldn't finish"
In the first period, Buffalo State jumped out to the lead midway through the period. Late in the period with Brockport on a power play, a shot from the point was blocked and the Bengals recovered the loose puck skating in on a breakaway and beat Green to the blocker side for a shorthanded goal and a 2-0 lead.
The Bengals held a 13-6 advantage in shots over the first 20 minutes of action.
The second period featured seven total goals as Buffalo State scored the first two to take a 4-0 lead before Brockport got on the board. Luker fired a slap shot from the point on a Golden Eagles power play and it found its way through a crowd in front of the Bengal goal into the top corner to cut the lead to 4-1.
Less than a minute later, the lead was cut in half as Cangro finished off an offensive rush as Brendon Rothfuss (Webster, NY) dug the puck out of the corner and sent a sharp pass through the crease and to the stick of Cangro on the corner of the net for the goal.
The Bengals responded with three goals in a span of just over two minutes to take all the momentum away from the Golden Eagles. The shots were nearly even at 11-10 in favor of Buffalo State in the second period.
The third period was scoreless with Brockport finishing the period with a shots advantage of 14-10.
"I wouldn't really fault (Aaron) Green for anything tonight," said Dickinson. He played hard and did a great job to get us into the playoffs."
The game marked the end of the career for the Brockport seniors.
"It is a bittersweet ending of the season for them," said Dickinson. "They showed great leadership all season and fought hard to the bitter end. This class can be proud that they did something that the last couple senior classes weren't able to do by making the playoffs."
