The Buffalo State women’s hockey team (4-1-1, 3-1 in ECAC West) is a good team, but they’re still working on finding ways to prove it week in and week out.  They split a conference week against Potsdam (5-1, 3-1 in ECAC West), beating the Bears 3-1 this past Friday and losing to them the following day by a score of 3-0.

Buffalo State has had Potsdam’s number recently. They won both games at home against the Bears last year, but winning on the road has proven to be difficult. The Bengals’ home record last season was an outstanding 10-2, but their away record, 7-6, tells the story of how important of an advantage home ice is in the ECAC.

“We can’t take any conference game lightly; our players know what’s at stake. Games are hard to win on the road and you don’t have your home-ice advantage,” Buffalo State head coach Candice Moxley said. “I thought today we played well and there would of been a different outcome if we could finish on our chances.”

The Bengals just couldn’t convert on their chances in the loss to Potsdam. They outshot the Bears by a total of 61-40 for the entire weekend, but the Bengals only managed to find the back of the net three times. It would seem that a team who is struggling to score would benefit off power play chances. But the Bengals have started the year with power play woes.

The Bengals have only two power play goals on the entire year, with only one coming in conference play. The Bengals are one for 23, while their opponents are two for 15 in ECAC play. However, the Bengals have 70 more shots than their opponents this year. Still, it’s troubling that they haven’t been able to convert more on their man-advantage chances.

“I wouldn’t say it’s concerning since it is still early in the season. That being said, being able to score on power plays can be a deal breaker, so I do think it’s one of the things we need to work on,” senior forward Viivi Vaattovaara said. “Even on power plays we’ve had great chances, so I think in general we just need to work on being able to generate goals in games where they don’t come as easy.”

If Buffalo State wants to be where they think they are capable of, they can’t afford to lose conference points this early in the season. This loss may come back to bite them later on, but there is plenty of games left to be played for the Bengals to make up for this loss.

“Obviously, all conference points matter, but we can’t dwell on this game and we simply have to look forward and take care of business,” junior goaltender Justine Silva said. “I think the biggest thing we have to work on is perfecting our special teams. The improvement of being dangerous on the power play will be huge against this Elmira team.”

Buffalo State will host national No. 3 Elmira this weekend for a conference matchup on Friday at 4 p.m. and another Saturday at 2 p.m. Both games are at the Buffalo State Ice Arena.

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