Bengals advance to face No. 4 Plattsburgh in semifinals with win over Potsdam.

Buffalo State rallied from a one-goal deficit to beat Potsdam, 4-3, on Wednesday at the Ice Arena.

The win advances the Bengals to the SUNYAC semifinals for the first time (13-11-2 SUNYAC) in program history and marks their first win in three tries against Potsdam (8-16-2 SUNYAC) this season.

"It's tough to beat a team three times in one year," head coach Nick Carriere said. "It's definitely a big confidence builder for our guys to make a comeback and beat them, especially in a last-minute fashion. It was an exciting, character-building win."

 Sophomore forward Taylor McGraw agreed.

"It feels real nice to beat them, especially after that 5-1 pummeling that we took in front of their fan base earlier this month," McGraw said. "It was good to respond in a moment that truly mattered, on a big stage."

The beginning of the game didn't provide much action, except for one moment near the end of the first period. Bears junior forward Matt Viola was given a 5-minute major penalty and a game misconduct for spearing a Bengals player. Although the Bengals were not able to capitalize on the ensuing power play, the penalty proved to be an indicator of things to come later in the game.

The Bengals put themselves up 1-0 just 38 seconds into the second period when sophomore forward Shane Avery banged home a rebound in front of the net. Avery was assisted by sophomore forward Mike Zanella and sophomore defenseman Anthony Orange.

Four minutes later, Potsdam tied the game with a power play goal from sophomore forward Adam Place. But junior forward Matt Bessing beat Bears senior goaltender Kevin McFarland with a wrist shot from the left wing to break the tie. Bessing's goal gave Buffalo State a 2-1 lead after two periods of play.

 In the middle of the third period, adversity struck the Bengals. Potsdam scored two goals within a span of 17 seconds, giving the Bears a 3-2 lead. Facing the prospect of a first-round playoff exit for a second straight year, Carriere decided to send a message to his team.

"You could see some shoulders drop, and some heads were down," Carriere said. "The biggest message we were pushing was, ‘Hey, let's just stay the course, keep the engines going, get pucks past their goal line and keep trying to take pucks to the net.'

"We'd been through a lot of different situations this year," Carriere continued. "The main message we were trying to sell was that nothing was impossible and no goal was unattainable."

Buffalo State not only stayed the course, but bounces began to come their way. Just as Viola had lost his composure in the first period, the rest of the Potsdam roster lost its own composure as well, taking three penalties within a five-minute span.

Sparked by their good fortune, the Bengals took advantage of the opportunities. Junior forward Drew Klin tied the game by deflecting a shot from freshman forward Elijah Cohen past McFarland and the Bengals took the lead for good a little more than four minutes later when McGraw notched just his second goal of the season on a power play.

"I got a pass down low and walked to the front of the net," McGraw said. "I looked for a backdoor, and I didn't see anything. I threw it at the net, and someone hit me. As I was falling, I saw the puck go into the net."

Not only was the win the first SUNYAC playoff victory in Buffalo State history, it also set a new school record for most wins in one season. That is a major accomplishment considering that just two years ago the team won only six games

"I think the last few years, this team has really made some strides," McGraw said. "I think at the beginning of next year, teams aren't going to look at us and say, ‘Well, they've had their nice little moment in the sun'. I think they'll say, ‘They've made the postseason two years in a row now, so they're for real.'"

Buffalo State has set its sights toward the semifinals where they'll take on second-seeded Plattsburgh on Saturday to potentially advance to the SUNYAC Finals next weekend.

The Bengals split the season series against the fourth-ranked Cardinals with a 4-3 upset win on Nov. 11 and a 1-0 loss on Feb. 2.

"(Plattsburgh) works tremendously hard and they're not going to give you a lot of scoring opportunities," Carriere said. "Their defensemen take away shooting and passing lanes real well, so we're going to have to work hard and play a tight, defensive game. It's going to be a real meat grinder on Saturday."

Durham, the Bengals' captain, believed the best way to defeat Plattsburgh was to impose their will on the Cardinals.

"I think we definitely match up well against them," Durham said. "The Cardinals don't like to be hit, so we're going to come out of the gates banging and crashing the net. We'll see what happens."

Tony Fiorello can be reached at fiorello.record@live.com.