Oswego Downs Buffalo State, WIll Host SUNYAC Championship

After struggling last weekend against the Plattsburgh State Cardinals, the Oswego State Men's Hockey team looked to rebound at home against the Buffalo State Bengals in the 2nd round of the SUNYAC Tournament. Oswego has yet to lose to Buffalo State in the history of the program. That trend would continue as Oswego State was able to advance in the tournament, beating the Bengals 5-2 in pretty convincing fashion.

Buffalo State would actually jump out on top thanks to a goal from Mike Zannella, his 16th of the year, at the 10:05 mark of the opening period. Oswego would respond in kind with a pair of goals before the end of the period. First it was Luke Moodie with his 20th of the year at the 15:28 mark to tie the game. Less than a minute later, at the 16:21 mark, David Titanic scored his 10th of the season to give Oswego a 2-1 lead they would carry into the locker rooms at the end of the period.

The middle period of this contest proved to be a chippy one as a total of seven penalties were called, three on Oswego and four on Buffalo State. Oswego would take advantage of the chippy play and come away with a pair of goals both coming of the stick of Chris Muise. Muise's first goal, and his 8th of the season, came unassisted at the 16:32 mark, while his 2nd of the night, and 9th of the year, came on a powerplay at the 18:42 mark. Oswego now carried a 4-1 lead heading into the 2nd intermission.

It took Buffalo State only 1:18 into the final period to cut the Oswego lead to 4-2. That's when Todd Graham scored his 2nd of the year, and it turned the heat up just a bit on the Lakers. Oswego and goalie Andrew Hare would hold the fort down. Oswego would seal the game at the 18:42 mark when David Titanic scored his 2nd of the game, and 11th of the year into an empty net and cap off the 5-2 Oswego victory.

Oswego outshot Buffalo State 41-35 for the game in picking up the victory. Kevin Carr, who has played almost every minute of every game for Buffalo State, took the loss, dropping his record to 13-12-2 on the year, made 36 saves in the loss. Andrew hare picked up the win for the Lakers, improving his record to 18-4-0, made 33 saves in the victory.

With the win, Oswego will get set to face arch rival Plattsburgh in the 2nd whiteout game of the season, this time with a SUNYAC Conference title and automatic bid into the NCAA Division III National Tournament on the line in Oswego this Saturday night!

A full preview of the game will be posted right here Friday afternoon to get everybody ready for that contest!

(Photo provided by the Oswego State Sports Information Department)

Season Is Over. Oswego Women's Hockey Falls to Neumann

After batteling all season long to stay in the playoff hunt and float around the 500 mark, the sun has set on a sour note for the Oswego State Women's Hockey team. For the 2nd year in a row the Lakers played host to the Neumann College Knights and for the 2nd year in a row the game ended with a 3-0 score. This time however Oswego came up on the wrong end of the score, getting shutout out and having their season come to an end.

Oswego played well, and was able to outshoot Neumann for the game 33-24 but Neumann goalie Shannon Donnelly stole the game. She stood on her head making 33 saves for the shutout and played out of her mind. Penalty trouble, which has been a slight problem for Oswego in the past, got to them again just a bit in this contest. Keira St-Laurent got Neumann on the board with her 2nd goal of the season, a powerplay goal, at the 10:53 mark of the opening period. Oswego outplayed Neumann for the first two periods, but found themselves trailing 1-0 to the Knights going into the 3rd period. Neumann would get goals from Edie Brenning, her 10th of the year at the 10:39 mark, and Megan Russelo her 6th at 14:03 to seal the victory for Neumann and move on to the next round in the ECAC West Tournament.

Shannon Donnelly picked up the win for Neumann, improving her record to 7-12-0, making 33 saves in the shutout win. Bridget Smith took the loss for Oswego, dropping her record to 10-8-1 on the year, while she made 18 saves in the loss. Freshman netminder Tori Trovato made 3 saves in the final six minutes of the hockey game that she played.

Oswego finished the regular season with a 12-12-1 record overall and 10-6-0 in ECAC West play. For a team that had taken a pretty big hit in the offseason, losing a few players that would have had big roles to play on the team, plus the loss of a few promising recruits to the program, OSwego was at a bit of a disadvantage from the outset of the year. Oswego only had 17 players on the roster this season, and the fact that they were able to not only finish the season at .500 overall and above 500 in conference play this year speaks major volumes about the players, the coaching staff, and the program as a whole.

A full season recap for the Oswego State Women's Hockey team will be posted within the next few weeks so stay tuned!

(Photo Provided by the Oswego State Sports Information Department)

SUNYAC Semi-Finals Preview

For the first time in SUNYAC Tournament play, the Oswego State Lakers and Buffalo State Bengals will face off for the right to play for a conference championship next weekend. Oswego earned an opening round bye and home ice advantage throughout the tournament by winning the conference regular season title. Buffalo State came in as the #4 seed in conference and beat Fredonia 6-0 in the opening round of the tournament to get to this point in time. Oswego State swept the season series against Buffalo State with a 5-4 win at the Campus Center Arena in November and a 4-0 win at Buffalo two weeks ago. The Lakers own an all-time record of 32-0-4 over the Bengals. Buffalo State's most recent tie came on February 8, 2002 in a 5-5 decision at Buffalo.

Here are a few interesting nuggets about the matchup this Saturday night. Both squads have been shut out once this season. Oswego State was shut out in a 6-0 loss at Utica, while Buffalo State's lone shutout was in the 4-0 loss to the Lakers. The Bengals are 0-5-1 against the remaining SUNYAC playoff teams, Oswego State is 4-2-0. The Lakers are 6-3-0 in games decided by two goals or less, while the Bengals are 6-9-0. Oswego State is 12-2-0 at home this season and 17-1-0 when scoring the first goal. Buffalo State is 4-8-0 on the road this year and 11-3-2 when putting the first goal on the scoreboard. The Lakers are 15-0-0 when leading after the first period and 20-0-0 when leading after two frames. Oswego State likes to get out to a fast start, as it has out-scored its opponents 52-21 in the first period. Fifteen of the Lakers' 21 wins have been by three goals or more, while seven of Buffalo State's 13 wins have also been by three goals or more.

So now that we have those fun facts out of the way, lets take a closer look at how these two teams stack up. The team stats are for conference play only, and where they rank in conference. Individual stats are for the entire season.

Team Offense:
Oswego- 5.00 Goals per Game #1 in Conference
Buffalo State- 3.29 Goals per Game #4 in Conference

Team Defense:
Oswego- 1.69 Goals per Game #2 in Conference
Buffalo State- 2.82 Goals per Game #4 in Conference

Power Play:
Oswego- 21 for 91 31.87% 2nd in Conference
Buffalo State- 20 for 95 21.05% 5th in Conference

Penalty Kill:
Oswego- 60 of 70 85.7% 2nd in Conference
Buffalo State- 61 of 83 73.5% 8th in Conference

Leading Scorers:

Oswego:
Paul Rodrigues- 14 goals 27 assists 41 points
Luke Moodie- 19 goals 19 assists 38 points
Chris Muise- 7 goals 22 assists 29 points
Chris Brown- 7 goals 21 assists 28 points
Jon Whitelaw- 8 goals 19 assists 27 points
Jesse McConney- 4 goals 20 assists 24 points

Buffalo State:
Nick Melligan- 13 goals 17 assists 30 points
Mike Zannella- 15 goals 10 assists 25 points
Trevor McKinney- 12 goals 9 assists 21 points
Matt Bessing- 12 goals 7 assists 19 points
Brett Hope- 4 goals 12 assists 16 points
Anthony Orange- 1 goal 14 assists 15 points

Goaltending:

Oswego:
Andrew Hare- 17-4-0 1.81 GAA .931 SV% 5 SO
Dan Jones- 2-0-0 1.55 GAA .934 SV%
Justin Gilbert- 2-0-0 1.55 GAA ,944 SV%

Buffalo State:
Kevin Carr- 13-11-2 2.47 GAA .922 SV % 3 SO
Peter Dudek- 0-0-0 0.00 GAA 1.000 SV%

Puckdrop for this contest is set for 7PM from the Campus Center Ice Arena in Oswego!

(Stats provided by Oswego State Sports Information Department and USCHO.com)

ECAC West First Round Preview

The march to the NCAA Division III National Championship kicks off this weekend as the ECAC West tournament kicks off in Oswego. For the 2nd straight year the Oswego State Women's Hockey team plays host to the Neumann College Knights. This will be the third year in a row that these two clubs will be facing each other in the playoffs. In the first meeting back in 2011 Oswego fell to Neumann in Neumann by a 2-1 score in double overtime. Last year the two played again, this time in Oswego, and the Lakers came away with the firs playoff win in program history, a 3-0 victory. Saturday's game will be the playoff rubber match.

These two teams have already played twice this season, in a weekend series at Neumann back on November 17th and 18th in Neumann, with Oswego winning both games. First game was a 4-2 win, which saw the first career goals for Breanne Reith and Bailee Goodon. Oswego took the 2nd game that weekend 2-1 in overtime, with the winner being scored by Leslie Jarvis, her first career goal. Bridget Smith and Shannon Donnelly were the goalies for both of those games back in November. Oswego State owns a five-game winning streak against Neumann. Prior to the current stretch, the Lakers were 1-10-0 versus the Knights.

Now there are a few interesting nuggets about these two clubs heading into the matchup this weekend. Seven of Oswego State's 11 losses this season have been shutouts compared to Neumann posting four shutouts in its 15 losses. Neumann is 1-9-0 against ECAC West playoff teams, Oswego State is 4-6-0. The Lakers are 7-8-0 in games decided by two goals or less, while the Knights are 3-7-0. Oswego State is 8-7-0 at home this season and 8-1-0 when scoring the first goal. Neumann is 6-2-0 on the road this year and 9-3-0 when putting the first goal on the scoreboard. The Lakers are 5-0-0 when leading after the first period and 10-0-0 when leading after two frames. The Knights have been outscored 28-17 in the third period. Six of Neumann's nine wins have been by three goals or more.

So now that we have some interesting stats about the teams here is officially how these two teams stack up. The rankings listed are where they rank in conference and nationally.

Team Offense:
Oswego- 2.31 Goals per Game 4th in ECAC
Neumann- 2.00 Goals per Game 6th in ECAC

Team Defense:
Oswego- 2.06 Goals per Game 4th in ECAC
Neumann- 2.56 Goals per Game5th in ECAC

Power Play:
Oswego- 10 for 79 12.66% 4th in ECAC
Neumann- 3 of 63 4.76% 7th in ECAC

Penalty Killing:
Oswego- 64 of 72 for 88.9% 4th in ECAC
Neumann- 73 of 92 for 79.3% 8th in ECAC

Leading Scorers:

Oswego:
Melissa Seamont- 9 goals, 15 assists, 24 points
Olivia Boersen- 7 goals, 9 assists, 15 points
Megan Hagg- 5 goals, 6 assists, 11 points
Emma Smetaniuk- 5 goals, 6 assists, 11 points
Mady Paul, 7 goals, 3 assists, 10 points

Neumann:
Edie Brenning- 9 goals 10 assists 19 points
Angela Gilmour- 6 goals 10 assists 16 points
Lynsey Nakamura- 5 goals 8 assists 14 points
Shanelle Doucette- 7 goals 3 assists 10 points
Megan Russelo- 5 goals 5 assists 10 points

Goaltenders:

Oswego:
Bridget Smith- 8-5-0 2.00 GAA .925 SV% 3 SO
Tori Trovato- 2-0-0 1.59 GAA .932 SV% 1 SO

Neumann:
Shannon Donnelly- 6-9-0 2.51 GAA .921 SV% 1 SO
Justina Mayr- 0-1-0 3.03 GAA .875 SV%

Puck drop for this opening round matchup is set for 2PM from the Campus Center Ice Arena in Oswego!

(Stats for story provided by the Oswego State Sports Information Department and USCHO.com)

End of An Era. Lindy Ruff Out as Sabres Coach

It has finally happened. After 1,165 games coached and 571 wins behind the bench, the Buffalo Sabres relieved Lindy Ruff of his duties Wednesday. Ruff was named coach on July 21, 1997, and since then, 170 coaching changes have been made around the NHL. Only Gregg Popovich, the coach of the NBA's San Antonio Spurs, has been employed as a head coach longer in the four major North American professional sports (he started in 1996). The Sabres are the only team Ruff has served as coach, and he has more wins than any coach with his first NHL team. Ruff finished in Buffalo with a record of 571-432-162. He won the Jack Adams Award following the 2005-06 season. His 571 wins are second-most by a coach with a single franchise, trailing only the New York Islanders' Al Arbour (740). Barry Trotz of the Nashville Predators, now the longest-tenured coach in the League, was hired two weeks after Ruff in 1997. Under Ruff, the Sabres won a Northeast Division title in 2009-10 and the Presidents' Trophy in 2006-07. They reached four Eastern Conference Finals (1998, 1999, 2006 and 2007) and the 1999 Stanley Cup Finals, where they lost to the Dallas Stars. Unfortunately for Ruff, the Sabres have failed to win a Stanley Cup Playoff series since 2007 and have missed the postseason in four of the past five years.

This somewhat comes as no real surprise, with the fact that the Sabres are sitting four games under 500 on the season and are in last place in the Northeast Division. Most of the players that are currently on the Buffalo roster have had Lindy as their only head coach in the NHL so its going to take some time to getting used to a new bench boss. I think the reason behind Lindy getting the Ax is the team isn't playing up to standard this season. Granted it is a lockout shortened season, but still with a team that, in the past, has normally been a good team during the regular season, just isn't at the moment. Scoring goals in Buffalo this year hasn't been a problem, its stopping the other team from scoring that has become a problem. And since it doesn't look like any of the players are going to get fired over it, the coach is usually takes the fall for it and loses his job.

Lindy Ruff had a great run as head coach of the Sabres. There is only none possible downside to his time as bench boss in Buffalo, and that is that he was never able to lead the Sabres to a Stanley Cup title. Closest he came was in 1999 when Buffalo lost to the Dallas Stars in six in the finals. Lindy has had great years coaching in Western New York, there is no denying that. The problem is though it seems that under Ruff the team has hid a bit of a skid the past few seasons, missing out on the playoffs four of the last five years.

So with Lindy Ruff now out of a job, his replacement is going to be Ron Rolston.  After spending his first ten years as a coach at the college level, Rolston has spent the past two seasons as head coach of the Rochester Americans of the AHL. He now takes over as head man in Buffalo for the remainder of the season. Ron is the older brother of former NHL player Brian Rolston.

Will the coaching change be the spark plug the Sabres need to possibly turn their season around? Only time will tell.

Blackhawks Record Tying Point Streak

With their shootout win last night over the Vancouver Canucks, the Chicago Blackhawks have tied the NHL record for the longest point-streaks to start season at 16 straight games.The Hawks are still the only team in the NHL unbeaten in regulation, with a record of 13-0-3 on the season, good enough to not only lead the Central Division, its the best record in the NHL at the moment. Chicago joins the 2006-07 Anaheim Ducks as the only team to get a point in 16 straight games from the start of the season. There are a total of five teams to start a season on point streaks of more than 13 games. Those teams are the 1994-95 Pittsburgh Penguins with 13, 1943-44 Montreal Canadiens at 14, the 1984-85 Edmonton Oilers at 15, the 2006-07 Anaheim Ducks at 16, and now the 2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks at 16. Of the other four teams listed, three have gone on to win the Stanley Cup at the end of the season (the 94-95 Penguins were the only team who failed to do so).

Chicago won their first six games of the year, two of which were in overtime. The first blip on the screen came on January 31st in a 2-1 shootout loss to the Minnesota Wild in Minnesota. Then it was followed with another loss in a shootout, this time in Vancouver to the Canucks by a 2-1 score. Chicago then followed up with four straight wins. Then another shootout loss, this time on February 12th to the Anaheim Ducks in Anaheim. The Hawks complete the 16 game swing with three straight wins. Chicago goes for 17 in a row with a point on February 22nd at the United Center when they play host to the San Jose Sharks.

There are a number of different elements which have lead to the Hawks great play in this stretch at the start of the year. First it has been great goaltending from Cory Crawford and Ray Emery. Crawford has a goals against average of under two and Emery has one under two and a half. Both goalies have save percentages well over .920. Hawks have had stable goaltending from the get go of the season and its been a big help. Also the Hawks have had a balanced scoring attack from the start of the year. There are only two skaters on teh team who don't have a point yet and they are Sheldon Brookbank and Brandon Bollig. everybody else has at least one point. Patrick Kane leads the way with nine goals and 12 assists for 21 points. Besides Kane, the Hawks have three other guys in double digits in pints, Jonathan Towes has 15 points, Patrick Sharp has 13 points and Marian Hossa has 12 points. So as you can see Chicago has been getting contributions from everybody. Although Marian Hossa left the game early last night after taking a hit to the head late. So his status for the next game against the Sharks is unclear at the moment.

Just for the fact that the Hawks have put themselves in this position speaks volumes about the Organization. There were some question marks coming into this year but Chicago has quieted the critics and in a very big way. The real question is can the Hawks maintain this level of play all the way through the rest of the regular season and the playoffs? As good as the Hawks have been to start the year, and they are the best team in the league at the moment, they need to be able to get hot and stay hot come playoff time. If Chicago can stay healthy the rest of the way and keep up this level of play then they have great chances at playing for the Stanley Cup come June. But first things first they have to get through the rest of the regular season. With they way they have played Chicago could be well on their way to a title!

Oswego Splits North Country Trip; Lose Again to Plattsburgh

The Oswego State Men's Ice Hockey team closed out the regular season, and a four game road trip, with a swing into the North Country to take on Potsdam and Plattsburgh to end the regular season. Oswego had already locked up home ice advantage throughout the SUNYAC playoffs, with a win over Potsdam Friday night, it would lock up another regular season SUNYAC title. All time against Potsdam, Oswego is 62-24-2 heading into Friday's game, and that win total would go up by one more as Oswego dominated from start to finish, rolling to a 10-0 victory. Do not adjust anything on you're computers, you did read that correctly. Oswego rolled over Potsdam 10-0.

Oswego was rolling from the outset, scoring seven goals in the first period alone. Goal scorers in the opening period were Bobby Gertsakis, his 4th of the year, Jon Whitelaw, his 8th of the year, Zach Josepher, his 8th of the year, Chris Brown, his 7th of the year, David Titanic, his 8th of the year, Luke Moodie, his 17th of the year, and Tyler Leimbrock his 10th of the year. Oswgo had a 7-0 lead at the end of one, the most goals they had scored in one period since scoring eight against Neumann College back in 2000 in route to an 11-0 victory. Oswego would score their final three goals in the 2nd period, Matt Singelton, his 3rd of the year, Luke Moodie, his 2nd of the night and 18th of the year, and Zach Josepher, his 2nd of the night and 9th of the season. Nobody scored in the 3rd period as Oswego put it in cruse control en route to the 10-0 victory.

This was the 2nd time this season Oswego has scored ten goals in a game, the other one being a 10-1 victory over Geneseo back on November 3rd in Geneseo. Shane Talarico took the loss for Potsdam, dropping his record to 3-4-0, allowing 6 goals and making 33 saves in just under 46 minutes of work. Austin Keiser saw 14:01 of the game allowing 4 goals and making 11 saves. Andrew Hare played the first period and picked up the win, improving his record to 17-3-0, while making six saves. Dan Jones played the final 40 minutes and made 13 saves in his work in net. As far as scoring for Oswego goes, everybody except Tim Carr, Kyle Badham, and Denton King picked up at least a point.

So with the victory Friday night, Oswego locks up the #1 seed in conference and another regular season SUNYAC title, the fourth one in as many years for the Lakers.

So after easily beating Potsdam it was off to Stafford Ice Arena to play the rival Plattsburgh State Cardinals. The follow recap is provided by the Oswego State Sports Information Department.

In a game that saw five combined special-team goals, it was a pair of even-strength strikes that handed the No. 2 Oswego State men's ice hockey team a 4-3 loss to No. 9 Plattsburgh Saturday night.

The Lakers remain the No. 1 seed in the upcoming playoffs, and will host the lowest remaining seed following Wednesday's play-in games on Saturday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. Ticket information will be released on Sunday. The Cardinals are the No. 2 seed, and will host the highest remaining seed next Saturday as well.

The Lakers dealt the first blow when Jon Whitelaw dug out a puck along the far boards to Paul Rodrigues, who was deep in the zone. He hit Bobby Gertsakis with a pass, as he was crashing to the back pipe. Gertsakis, then, extended his goal-scoring streak to four games with the power-play goal at 14:42 in the first.  

Plattsburgh evened the score late in the frame with a power-play marker of its own when Mark Constantine got the puck past Laker goalie Andrew Hare with assists going to Kevin Emmerling and Jared Docking.

With the score tied at 1-1 heading into the second, the Laker offense turned up the pressure on Cadieux, who made a several strong saves to keep the game tied. It was not until the 14:01 mark that the deadlock ended when Emmerling put away a rebound on another Cardinal power play to put the home team back in front.

Minutes later, Plattsburgh gained another power play following a Laker interference penalty. Matt Singleton blocked a shot at the blue line creating a breakaway on Cardinal goalie Mathieu Cadieux, who came out of the net to try to poke the puck away. Cadieux got a small piece of the puck, causing it roll around in the crease with Cadieux well out of position. David Titanic put a stick on it, scoring his ninth goal of the season. 

Both squads appeared to be headed into intermission knotted at two, but Nick Jensen scored his sixth goal of the season at 18:39 to send Oswego State into the locker room trailing, 3-2.

Hare kept the Cardinals off the board early in the third when he stopped a pair of shots on a breakaway that would have resulted in a short-handed goal. However, Plattsburgh eventually doubled its lead at 7:45 when Emmerling capitalized on a Laker turnover behind the net and lifted his shot over Hare for his second goal of the game.

Midway through the period, Plattsburgh committed two penalties to give Oswego State a 5-on-3 situation. The Lakers scored 12 seconds into the two-skater advantage when Luke Moodie found the back of the net with a series of tic-tac-toe passes from Rodrigues and Whitelaw.

Oswego State pulled Hare with 46 seconds remaining in regulation, but was unable to net the equalizer to force overtime.

The Lakers ended the game 2-for-6 on the power play with one short-handed goal compared to Plattsburgh, which went 2-for-6 as well. Hare finished the game with 31 saves, while Cadieux ended with 26 stops.

So with that the regular season has come to an end. Playoffs begin this Saturday night at 7PM and the opponent will be determined tomorrow. So check back at the end of the week for previews of all playoff games this weekend!

(Photo provided by the Oswego State Athletics Department)