Buffalo St. wins big, stays hot over Potsdam

Being tied for 4 th place in the SUNYAC conference can certainly be a difficult thing for any team.

However, when you look at the final score, a 5-1 victory over the Bears of Potsdam, the team that the Bengals (10-9-3, 5-5-3) were tied with, it didn't seem that way.

There was no doubt about how dominant Buffalo State was over Potsdam, and this dominance would begin early.

The Bengals would begin the scoring on a weak side rebound by senior forward Nick Lynch at 2:41, who along with fellow senior forward Johnny Duco and sophomore defenseman Tyler Soehner would get 3 points a piece.

After Potsdam tied the game on the Power play 10 minutes later, the Bengals took the lead back for good with 7 seconds left in the 1 st period on a hard slap shot by Soehner.

From that point on, the momentum was on their side, with timely defense and a great job in goal by sophomore Kyle Gunn-Taylor, shutting the Bears out the rest of the game.

In the 2 nd period, the dominance was leaking all over the ice for the Bengals. The opportunities to put the puck in the net were a little too easy early on, and they broke through 16 seconds in on a rebound in front by Lynch.

Exactly 5 minutes later, junior forward Travis Whitehead scored as their power play expired.

The aggressiveness that the Bengals showed would result in another goal by them, again in the last minute of the period. On a delayed penalty, freshman forward Kerry Barchan scored on a deflection off of the Bears goaltender, Rob Barnhardt's, shoulder.

With their great defense, especially on the power play, and goaltending, they have continued a hot streak that's included 9 of 10 games where they earned at least a point.

For some reason, sole possession of 4 th place doesn't seem like a bad thing. OnGroundhog night, there were 5 reasons why.