Oswego Men's Hockey Earns Split Opening Weekend

Oswego State officially kicked off the 2013-14 season with a weekend series against western New York opponents, as the Fredonia Blue Devils and Buffalo State Bengals made their only trips to the Campus Center during the regular season. Fredonia was up first last Friday night, a team in which has given Oswego fits over the past few seasons, was back to the same old tricks.

The first period went quietly, with neither team being able to find the back of the net. Shots favored Oswego 14-10 in the opening period. To the 2nd period we go and the scoring finally opened at the 4:36 mark when Shawn Hulshof scored his first career goal to give the Lakers the lead. Mitch Kaufmann would tie the game for the Blue Devils less than three minutes later. Oswego would retake the lead at 19:12 when Brandon Adams scored his first career goal. The Lakers would carry the 2-1 lead into the 2nd intermission. The lead wouldn't last very long, as at 4:08 of the 3rd period Chad Bennett would connect on the powerplay, his first of the season, to knot the score. Nobody would be able to break the tie in regulation, so we headed to overtime. The game looked set to end in a tie but out of nowhere, with 28 seconds left on the clock, Hunter Long scored the game winner for the Blue Devils, pulling out the comeback 3-2 win.

Oswego outshot Fredonia 40-29 throughout the hockey game, but couldn't get that elusive 3rd goal. Justin Gilbert took the Loss for the Lakers, stopping 26 of 29 shots. Meanwhile, Chris Eiserman got the win for Fredonia, stopping 38 of 40 Oswego shots. Fredonia went 1 for 5 on the powerplay, while Oswego was 0 for 4 with the man advantage. This was the first season-opening loss for Oswego since the 2008-09 season when it fell 3-2 on the road at Elmira College. The loss is also the first home-opening loss in the Campus Center Ice Arena since the 2007-08 season when the Soaring Eagles defeated Oswego 3-2.

So after the sting of Friday night still fresh, Oswego had to rebound Saturday night against the Buffalo State Bengals. And rebound they did. Both Oswego and Buffalo State came out in this game very aggressive, with Oswego getting on the board first. Dylan Smith connected for his first career goal at the 5:19 mark of the opening period to give Oswego the early lead. The lead wouldn't last long, as at the 8:26 mark Adam Rossi scored his 2nd of the season to tie the game for the Bengals. Teams would trade off penalties the rest of the opening period, but neither team would capatalize and the opening period ended tied at 1.

To the 2nd period we go, and the intensity was much the same from the opening frame, but with an increase in scoring. Alex Botten scored his first career goal, a powerplay goal, at the 10:01 mark to put Oswego back up by one. Taylor Pryce scored his 1st of the season at the 12:43 mark to pull Buffalo State back even at 2. The tie wouldn't last very long, as Matt Galati scored his 1st career goal, and game winner, at 13:36 of the 2nd. Nobody scored during the final period, allowing Oswego to hang on for the 3-2 victory, their first win of the young season.

Matt Zawadzki picked up his first career victory in net for Oswego, stopping 24 of 26 buffalo State Shots. Meanwhile, Kevin Carr took the loss for Buffalo State, dropping his record to 1-1-0 on the year, while he stopped 50 of 53 Oswego shots.

So the Lakers close out opening weekend with a couple of nail bitters to start the year off. Next weekend the team plays only once, that being Saturday 11/9 in Cortland against the Red Dragons, with faceoff set for 7PM!

(photo and some parts of the story provided by the Oswego State Sports Information Department)