GENEVA, N.Y. – The William Smith College ice hockey team dropped an ECAC West Conference game to Buffalo State 3-1 at The Cooler this evening. The Bengals scored a goal a period to secure the victory.

Buffalo State (13-3-0, 7-2-0) took an early 1-0 lead in the game when Missy Mallon scored at 11:18 of the first period. She carried the puck inside the right faceoff circle and tucked a shot between William Smith goalie Laurel Brown's left pad and the right post. The Bengals held an 18-11 advantage in the shot column in the first period but Brown was up to the task, stopping 17 of the 18 shots she faced in the first 20 minutes.

William Smith (4-10-3, 2-8-3) had its scoring chances on the power play midway through the period but could not put the puck past Buffalo State goalie, Justine Silva.  The Herons completed their first power play of the game with three shots on goal and had four shots blocked by Buffalo State defenders.

The Bengals doubled their lead at 11:53 of the second period. Brooke Krantz collected a crossing pass from Christine Harris and put a backhanded shot past Brown. Nikki Kirchberger scored a power-play goal at 9:07 of the third period to give Buffalo State a 3-0 lead. She picked up a loose puck below the goal line and fired a bad angle shot off a defender and into the goal.

Sophomore Rebecca Begley put the Herons on the board at 17:45 of the third period with her team-leading sixth goal of the season. With William Smith on the power play, the Herons decided to pull the goalie in favor of the extra skater. Sophomore Krista Federow cleanly won a faceoff back to Hedi Droste at the point. Droste found first-year Maura Mulligan in the right faceoff circle. Mulligan fired a crossing pass to Begley, and Begley blasted the shot past Silva. Mulligan and Droste were credited with assists on the goal.

Brown started in goal for the Herons and made 39 saves in 57:41 of action. On the other end of the ice, Silva stopped 23 of the 24 shots she faced in the Bengals cage.

William Smith's penalty kill was strong, killing off seven of the eight Buffalo State power plays. The Herons scored on one of their five opportunities with the extra attacker.

William Smith and Buffalo State will be back at The Cooler tomorrow afternoon. Faceoff is scheduled for 4 p.m.