BUFFALO, N.Y.—Third seeded Buffalo State (17-7-2) scored three second period goals and added an empty-netter in the third to defeat the sixth seeded SUNY Potsdam women's hockey team (12-13-1) in the ECAC West Quarterfinals on Thursday night. Natasha Steinle had a hat trick for the Bengals.

The first period saw back and forth action early, just not many shots. The first great chance of the period came at 6:05. The puck deflected ahead to Christine Harris and she went in all alone. She wristed a shot from the slot, but Bears freshman goalie Alexa Pfeiffer (Sylvania, Ohio/Little Caesar's) robbed her with her glove. Freshman forward Lucy Condon (Kitchener, Ontario/Waterloo Ravens), senior forward Jordan Ott (Hilton, N.Y./Rochester Edge) and sophomore forward Rylie Murray (Berkley, Mich./Honeybaked) all had solid chances with under five minutes remaining in the first, but Bengals goalie Justine Silva kept them off the board. Junior assistant captain Anna-Rose Bertin (Marathon, Ontario/Canadian International Hockey Academy) had a final chance on the power play with 12 seconds left, but the teams entered the first intermission scoreless.

After early pressure from the Bears, Buffalo State killed off the penalty. Pfeiffer stopped another breakaway at the 3:13 mark. The Bengals then broke out with three goals in a 2:23 span. Steinle got Buffalo State on the board with a high shot from right faceoff circle at 3:40. Harris made it 2-0 after finishing a pass in the slot at 4:49. Steinle struck again on a two-on-one just 1:14 later. The Bears evened the play after the flurry, but trailed 3-0 after 20 minutes.

The third period featured more balanced play. Potsdam pressured the Bengals on the power play at the 6:51 mark, but still couldn't solve Silva. Ott nearly lit the lamp one final time at the 2:15 mark, but she rifled a shot that seemed to rattle off the crossbar and right post. Pfeiffer was pulled with 42 seconds remaining and Steinle completed the hat trick with 22.5 seconds left to seal the 4-0 victory.

Pfeiffer finished with 20 saves on the night and Silva stopped 22 shots for the shutout.

The contest marked the end of the careers of seniors Ott, Kaylen Van Wagner (Red Hook, N.Y./Hotchkiss Prep), Madison Smith (Edmonton, Alberta/The College of St. Scholastica), Kady Hart (Potsdam, N.Y./North Country Ice Storm) and Amanda Peterson (West Chazy, N.Y./Chazy Flyers). Ott finishes as the Bears' NCAA era all-time leading scorer with 107 points on 61 goals and 46 assists. Van Wagner played in all 102 games during her time in a Bears uniform, totaling 17 points (2-15). Smith had three (1-2) points in 51 games and Hart recorded two goals and two assists in 76 games. Peterson ranks 11th on the all-time scoring list with 18 goals and 20 assists for 38 points.