Whiteout Night Has Arrived! #7 Plattsburgh vs. #1 Oswego

The night has finally arrived. It’s a night most college hockey fans in Upstate New York wait for every year. It’s the annual Whiteout game between Plattsburgh State and Oswego State. This rivalry dates back to the very first meeting between the two teams back in 1975, and in that time the two schools have played each other 104 times. Plattsburgh has the edge in the all-time series with a 68-32-4 record against the Lakers of Oswego. In fact, Plattsburgh is only one of two schools to have a winning record against Oswego in which the schools have played more than 30 times (Elmira is the other one), and Plattsburgh is the only SUNYAC team to have a winning record against Oswego.

Since the 2001-02 season, the Lakers and Cardinals have met nine times in the SUNYAC finals, including last year. Plattsburgh has won seven of the nine games. During regular season play, Plattsburgh has an advantage. Since 1999-2000, Plattsburgh has a record of 13-11-3 against Oswego, but the Lakers have won five of the last six meetings during the regular season (The only blemish on Oswego’s winning streak during that time span was a 2-2 tie at Stafford Ice Arena last year).

Each school has their own traditions for when the rival comes into town, dating back to 1990 when the Cardinal Hockey Booster Club began a tradition of throwing hundreds of tennis balls onto the ice after the first Cardinal goal was scored against the visiting Lakers. The idea to throw tennis balls was due in large part to the color of the tennis balls matching the Lakers road uniforms at the time and that the head coach of the Lakers was Don Unger, who was also the school’s tennis coach. The Lakers countered the tennis ball throwing with bagel throwing in 1998 after the Lakers shut out the Cardinals in Plattsburgh, denying fans the opportunity to throw the tennis balls. The idea behind bagels was that it was to signify that the Cardinals had zero on the scoreboard. When the Lakers retired their bright yellow road jerseys, Cardinals fans began throwing red tennis balls onto the ice, representing the team’s colors.

The bagel tossing at Oswego State lasted until the 2006-07 season when the Lakers moved from Romney Field House to the Campus Center Ice Arena. Prior to the start of the season, the athletic department had WTOP, the school’s campus television station, shoot a public service announcement with the team captains pleading to the fans to not throw bagels onto the ice. The reason behind the public service announcement was because, while the bagel throwing was a spectacle to behold, it was disruptive to the game and did more harm than good. The first time the bagels flooded the ice, the Lakers would be given a warning for delay of game. After the bagels were thrown for a second time, the Lakers were assessed a two-minute penalty. So now after moving into the campus center, the whiteout tradition began and has been a staple at Oswego State ever since.

Now before we really look ahead to tonight’s matchup, let’s take a look back at the three meetings between these two teams last season. The first meeting between the two clubs took place on December 2nd at Stafford Ice Arena in Plattsburgh, and ended with a 2-2 tie. Jon Whitelaw and Chris Ayotte scored for Oswego, while Plattsburgh got goals from Paul Puglisi and Alex Jensen. Round two took place at the Campus Center in Oswego back on February 17th, with Oswego skating away with a 3-0 victory. Andrew Hare got the shutout for Oswego, and scoring for the Lakers that night was Jesse McConney, Jon Whitelaw, and Chris Ayotte. The final meeting between the two clubs was for the SUNYAC Championship at the Campus Center back on March 3rd. This time there was no celebration for Oswego as Plattsburgh walked away with the conference title after a 3-2 win. Nick Jensen scored twice for the Cards as did Mark Grace. Oswego got goals from Jon Whitelaw and Kyle Badham, but it wasn’t enough.

So now that everybody is caught up on where these two teams stand, let’s take one final look at a breakdown for tonight’s action. There are a few key players to watch for either team tonight. For Oswego it’s their big weapons of Paul Rodrigues, Luke Moodie, Jon Whitelaw, Tyler Leimbrock and Andrew Hare. For Plattsburgh it’s their big weapons of Nick Jensen, Mike Grace, Mathieu Cadieux, Mark Constantine, and Luke Baleshta. Moodie and Rodrigues are the leading scorers for Oswego, while Mark Constantine and Luke Baleshta lead the scoring for Plattsburgh. Rodrigues and Moodie are 1 and 2 in the entire nation in scoring, Rodrigues leads the way with 21 points and moodie is right behind him with 20 points. In their career against Plattsburgh, Rodrigues has 8 games played with 1 goal and 5 assists for 6 points.  As for Luke Moodie, in 8 games played he's got 2 goals and 4 assists for 6 points. If he is able to come back and play tonight Jon Whitelaw has good numbers against the Cards. In 8 games played, Whitelaw has 7 goals and 1 assist for 8 points. Andrew Hare has pretty impressive numbers in goal against Platty, he is 1-1-1 with .945 SV%, a 1.43 GAA and 1 shutout. As for Plattsburgh, Nick Jensen has the best numbers against Oswego. In 5 games played, Jensen has 3 goals and 2 assists for 5 points. Mike Grace also has good numbers against the Lakers. In 7 games played, Grace has 1 goal and 3 assists for 4 points. As for Cardinal goaltending, Mathieu Cadieux carried the work load last year, and here is what he put up. Cadieux was 1-1-1 with a  .914 SV% and a  1.17 GAA

Here is how these two teams stack up (National Rankings in Division 3 hockey):
Team Offense:
Oswego: #1 with 6.38 Goals per Game
Plattsburgh: #17 with 3.98 Goals per Game

Team Defense:
Oswego: #2 with 1.28 Goals per Game
Plattsburgh: #8 with 1.68 Goals per Game

Power Play:
Oswego: #6 16 for 48 for 33.33%
Pplattsburgh: #11 13 for 48 27%

Penalty Kill:
Oswego: T-18 38 of 42 87%
Plattsburgh: #3 27 of 29 92%

Puck drops tonight at 7PM!

(Information provided for this story comes from Oswego State Athletics, USCHO.COM, Mike Kraft of the Oswegonian and collegehockeystats.net)