POTSDAM, N.Y. - The No. 10 ranked Castleton State College men's ice hockey team won for the seventh-straight game, defeating SUNY-Potsdam 6-2 in non-conference action Tuesday evening at Maxcy Arena.
With the win Castleton improves to 11-2-0 on the season, far-and-away its best start to a season in program history. The seven-straight wins is second only to an eight-game streak the Spartans put together during the 2006-07 campaign, in which they won a program-record 17 games and appeared in the ECAC East semifinals.
After falling behind 1-0 on a Matt Miller (Pickering, Ontario) power-play goal in the first period, Castleton unleashed four unanswered goals in the second and third frames to put the game away. Josh Harris (Torrance, Calif.) scored the equalizer five minutes into the second period, his seventh of the season off assists from Justin Alonzo (San Jose, Calif.) and Braden Kinnebrew (Anchorage, Alaska). TJ Hermans (Chesterfield, Va.) made it 2-1 seven minutes later potting the second goal of his young career.
Harris and Kinnebrew set up Alonzo for what proved to be the game-winner on a Spartan power-play opportunity less than two minutes into the final period, and Harris passed out another helper on Alonzo's second marker three minutes later to push the lead to 4-1.
Potsdam cut the lead in half with 11:40 to play in the third on a goal by freshman David Carr (Edmonton, Alberta), his third of the year. Sophomore Matt Viola (Toronto, Ontario) and senior Jordan Delong (Perth-Andover, New Brunswick) picked up assists on the play.
Castleton pushed the lead back to three on a Colin Murray (Oshawa, Ontario) goal and Cody Ayers (Colorado Springs, Colo.) added an insurance tally with just under three minutes remaining.
Junior goaltender Trevor O'Neill (Bobcaygeon, Ontario) finished with 34 saves in the loss, while Seth McNary (Woburn, Mass.) improved to 7-1-0 on the season, stopping 29 shots.
The Spartans return to ECAC East action this weekend, facing off with UMass-Boston Friday at 7 pm and Babson on Saturday at 4pm.
