The landscape for the Potsdam men’s hockey team had begun to change in recent weeks.
Winners in five of its past six games, the Bears had strung together much more consistent efforts behind some timely goals, more hustle, and sound goaltending by senior Shane Talarico(Greensburg, Pa. / Elmira College).
Talarico was coming off an impressive week in which he stopped 60 shots, and was named as the SUNYAC’s Goalie of the week, in picking up a pair of wins against Saint Anselm’s.
But, on Friday night, an energetic Castleton State team applied pressure from the onset and skated to a three-goal lead after the first intermission before winning 6-2 over Potsdam in a nonconference affair at Maxcy Arena.
Will Laking was able to score from the slot, Ryan Frost went high to beat Talarico and Kyle Pichler added a short-handed goal on a breakaway to take the 3-0 lead after one period of play.
The Bears (5-8) responded on a short-handed goal by sophomore forward Todd Thomas (Davidsville, Pa. / Hartford Wolfpack) about midway through the second period. Thomas took a pass from sophomore Matt Thompson (Anchorage, Alaska / Kenai River Brown Bears) to take advantage of the odd man rush.
That’s as close as Potsdam would get, however, as the Spartans (8-6) racked up three more goals in the period on scores by Derek Gingera, Colin Murray and Nick Kovalchik.
Murray’s goal forced Talarico out of the game after 34:22 of action. He made 14 saves.
Sophomore Austin Keiser (Dunwoody, Ga. / Boston Bulldogs) replaced him and saved 10 of 11 shots to finish out the game.
Senior captain Mike Arnold scored his 10th goal of the season on an assist from senior defenseman Kevin Carpenter (Denver, Colo. / Notre Dame Hounds) for the game’s only goal in the third period.
