PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – The Rivier men's ice hockey team returned from winter break to a matchup with the nation's No. 5 ranked team in the country, falling to Plattsburgh by a final of 4-1 on Friday night at Stafford Ice Arena in the team's first game of the Comfort Inn Complex Winter Classic.

Rivier fell to 6-6-2 overall with the loss while the Cardinals improved to 11-2-0.

The Cardinals opened the scoring just 18 seconds into the opening period when Colin Callanan lit the lamp. Just over 9 minutes later, Cormac Hayes took advantage of a Raiders' powerplay opportunity, scoring on feeds from Carter Poulin and Nicolas Paolucci to knot the game up at 1-1. With 6:41 left in the stanza, Plattsburgh retook the lead on a goal by Simon Singher.

Neither team would score in the second, keeping it a one-goal game going into the final 20 minutes of regulation. Over the final 11:56, both Brannon Butler and Ryan Butler would score for the Cardinals to pull away from Rivier and secure a spot in Saturday's championship game, where they will take on Albertus Magnus.

Rivier will play in the consolation contest against Nazareth on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

The Raiders were outshot 39-19 in the loss, with Luke Newell making 35 stops between the pipes.