Paul Rodrigues Lights Up Morrisville for 5 Goals as Part of 8-1 Route

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Paul Rodrigues had the best game of his college career to date, lighting up the Morrisville Mustangs for 5 goals en route to an 8-1 victory Saturday night in Morrisville. The game recap that follows was provided by the Oswego State Athletics Department.

The line of Paul Rodrigues, Jon Whitelaw, and Luke Moodie recorded six goals and seven assists to help the second-ranked Oswego State Hockey team(17-2-2, 10-0-2 SUNYAC) knock off Morrisville, 8-1, Saturday night at the IcePlex. Rodrigues erupted for five goals and an assist, while Moodie posted four assists. The win avenged an earlier 3-3 tie against the Mustangs (4-17-1, 3-10-1 SUNYAC) this season.

It did not take long for the Lakers to get the offense rolling as Rodrigues scored 43seconds into a Morrisville tripping penalty for his first goal of the contest at the 1:33 mark with Moodie and Whitelaw getting the helpers. Ian Boots made it a 2-0 game at 7:34 of the period.

Rodrigues, then, took control of the game by scoring the next four Oswego State goals over the next three periods. Moodie and Chris Ayotte found Rodrigues for his second power-play goal at 14:21 of the first. He completed the hat trick before the end of the first period at 18:57 with an assist to Farris, as the Lakers took a four-goal lead into the locker room.

Oswego State scored its third power-play goal of the game at 13:15 in the second period when Moodie and Whitelaw found linemate Rodrigues for his fourth marker, prompting a Mustang timeout. The goal proved to be the only score of the frame, as the Lakers held a 5-0 advantage with 20 minutes to play.

Rodrigues tallied his fifth and final goal of the contest at 6:48 in the third period just two seconds after Morrisville returned to full strength following a roughing penalty with Ayotte earning his second assist on the night. However, Morrisville ended the shutout bid less than two minutes later when Todd Hosmer posted his 14th goal of the season on the power play. Tom Langland and Alex Tillaart assisted the play at the 8:24 mark to make the score 6-1 in favor of the Lakers.

Shortly after, Whitelaw joined the scoring act with his tenth goal of the season at 9:42, as Rodrigues and Moodie were credited with assists. Chris Muise scored the last Oswego State goal of the game at 13:11 following a Mustang tripping penalty, as Boots and McConney picked up the assists.

The Lakers finished the game 4-for-10 with the extra skater, while Morrisville went 1-for-7.

Laker goaltender Andrew Hare stopped 23 of the 24 shots he faced to improve to 14-2-2this season. Morrisville's Christopher Azzano finished with seven saves on 11 shots in the first period, while Colin Breen made 35 saves in the relief appearance.

And of course here are the video highlights from Morrisville thanks to Mike Keeley, WNYO play-by-play voice:


Now in school history, prior to Rodrigues, there had been nine other times when a Lakers player had scored 5 goals in a game. The last one to do it was Brendan McLaughlin on November 25, 2005 at home against Buffalo State. Also the last Laker player to score 4 goals in a game was Neil Musselwhite, who scored 4 goals against Brockport at home on December 4th 2009. That night Neil went into the record books scoring the first ever short handed natural hat trick. And lets not forget about Chris Brown's Hat trick last week against Brockport. So as you can see Oswego has had some record setting games in the past few seasons.

The win kept Oswego State one point ahead of Plattsburgh for first place in the SUNYAC standings with four conference games remaining in the regular season. It also clinched a first-round bye for the Lakers in the SUNYAC playoffs, meaning they will host a post-season game on Saturday, February 25 at 7 p.m.