The night has finally arrived. The night Laker hockey fans have been waiting for has finally arrived. Whiteout night is finally here. Both teams come into this contest on hot streaks of sorts. Oswego walks in with a 19-2-2 record overall and a 12-0-2 record in SUNYAC play which is good enough to be the Number 1 team in all of Division III Men’s Hockey. Plattsburgh meanwhile comes in with a 16-3-4 record overall and a 11-2-1 record in SUNYAC play, good enough for #4 in the Country in Division III Hockey.
Oswego has gone unbeaten in the last 6 meetings against the Cardnials going 5-0-1 in that stretch including playoffs. The last win for Plattsburgh against the Lakers came on March 7th 2009 in the SUNYAC Championships a game the Cardnials won 5-4 in Overtime. These two clubs met earlier this season at Stafford Ice Arena in Plattsburgh, a great great hockey game that ended in a 2-2 tie.
Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with the tradition of the whiteout game here is basically what happens. The whole thing started back in 2007 when the Campus Center Ice Arena opened. In the old building, Romney Fieldhouse, whenever Oswego would score, the crowd would throw bagels on the ice, in response to the crowd at Stafford throwing tennis balls, why that is I will never fully understand. Anyway, the last game at Romney between the two teams, Oswego was giving a 2 minute minor for delay of game from throwing bagels on the ice. So now instead of getting hit with a minor for bagel throwing everybody is showing support for the club by wearing white shirts.
Now then as for the action this weekend between the Lakers and Cardnials here’s how the two clubs stack up. Leading Oswego in scoring is Jon Whitelaw with 11 goals and 19 assists good for 34 points. Plattsburgh’s leading scorer is Kyle Kudroch with 9 goals and 11 assists good for 20 points. Mathieu Cadieux has carried the load in goal for Plattsburgh with a record of 13-3-3 a 1.76 GAA and a .923 SV %, while Andrew Hare has done the same for Oswego with a record of 16-2-2 a GAA of 1.82 and a SV % of .928.
Coming into this matchup Oswego enters with the #1 ranked offense in Division III averaging 4.78 goals per game while Plattsburgh is #22 in the country at just over 3 goals per game. As for team defense Oswego and Plattsburgh ared tied for the 3rd best team defense in the nation allowing 1.78 goals per game. As for special teams the numbers are as follows. Oswego has the #10 Powerplay in the country at 25.19% while Plattsburgh is #34 at just over 19%. As for the pleanly kill Plattsburh has the #1 ranked kill in the nation at 93.4% while Oswegos kill is #10 in the country at 86.6%.
For all of you're viewing enjoyment here are the video highlights from last year's whiteout thanks to WTOP:
And finally just to make sure everybody is really, truly ready for whiteout, here is an awesome game video preview provided by die hard Lakers fan Robert Landgrebe:
So now the time has come. Whiteout night has arrived and it should be one hell of a hockey game!
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