The top-ranked Oswego State men's ice hockey team was the beneficiary of two goals from Eli Kim-Swallow, as the Lakers defeated Potsdam, 6-0, Friday night at the Campus Center Ice Arena. Senior goalie Andrew Hare posted his third shutout of the season and eighth in his career after making 30 saves.
Luke Moodie got the crowd going early when he tapped in a pass from Paul Rodrigues. Rodrigues received the puck at the blue line after Zach Josepher ripped a pass from deep in the Oswego State defensive zone up the boards as Rodrigues got behind the defense. Rodrigues skated up the right wing before sending the puck through the slot to Moodie, who was crashing the net on the opposite side.
Potsdam nearly evened the score six minutes in when a shot from the point clanged off the left post into traffic, but the puck was cleared out of harm's way. The Bears later went on the power play following a Laker roughing penalty and hit their second pipe.
However, momentum swayed back in favor of Oswego State when Eli Kim-Swallow registered his first collegiate goal as his shot from the left faceoff circle while Oswego State was transitioning into its offensive zone to double the lead. Chris Muise earned an assist on the final marker of the frame at 15:53. This goal was by far the strangest goal of the year as it bounced over the head of goalie Austin Kreiser and in. BUt a goal is a goal no matter how it crosses the line.
The second period featured action going up and down the ice until the Campus Center fire alarms went off forcing the crowd of 2,750 to leave the rink with 2:28 remaining in the stanza. Officials decided to re-sheet the ice at that time as the teams had to leave the benches.
With the score still 2-0 heading into the final period, Jesse McConney rifled a pass through the neutral zone to Chris Carr just before he crossed the blue line. Carr skated in alone on Potsdam goalie Austin Keiser, and went top shelf with the shot for his second goal of the season to give the home team some breathing room. Josepher also earned his second assist of the night.
Midway through the period, Tyler Leimbrock added an insurance goal when he tapped in a cross-ice feed from David Titanic and Muise to make the score, 4-0, in favor of the Lakers. The goal also prompted the Bears to call timeout.
Oswego State netted its first power-play goal of the contest with 1:46 left in regulation when Bobby Gertsakis and Leimbrock fed Josepher for the one-timed blast from the right faceoff circle. Less than 30 seconds later, Kim-Swallow posted his second marker of the game with a slap shot in the slot that went top shelf. Chris Carr and Taylor Farris picked up assists on the play that made the score 6-0. Neither squad fared well on the power play, as the Lakers went 1-for-6 and the Bears went 0-for-4. Austin Keiser finished the game with 35 saves in the losing effort.
So now that Oswego had improved its record to 8-0-0 it was time for the biggest home game of the year, whiteout night finally arrived and rival Plattsburgh entered the Campus Center. The following game recap is provided by the Oswego State Sports Information Department.
The top-ranked Oswego State men's ice hockey team had a late third-period surge, but fell short of completing the comeback as it suffered a 2-1 loss to seventh-ranked Plattsburgh on Saturday night at the Campus Center Ice Arena. The game also marked the end of the first half of the SUNYAC schedule for both teams.
With the teams skating 4-on-4 in the early stages of the first period, Paul Puglisi blasted a shot along the ice from the center of the blue line that went between Andrew Hare's legs at 5:10. Jared Docking and Jake Mooney earned assists on the play. The Lakers killed off a two-player disadvantage for 49 seconds than skated another player down for the next two minutes, 37 seconds without allowing Plattsburgh to strike again.
Alex Brenton forced a turnover near the blue line while the Cardinals were fending off a bench minor for too many men on the ice. He skated in alone, and wristed his shot past Hare at 13:00 in the first period to put Plattsburgh ahead 2-0, which was the score at intermission.
A series of Plattsburgh penalties gave the Lakers a skater edge from 2:52 to 7:32, including two stretches of a 5-on-3 advantage that spanned 49 and 31 seconds, respectively, but were unable to get on the scoreboard. Oswego State had a chance late in the period when Paul Rodrigues had a point blank shot on Mathieu Cadieux, but ripped his shot off the right post.
Heading into the final period still trailing 2-0, the Laker penalty-kill unit fought off two more penalties in the first five minutes. Oswego State had back-to-back power plays midway through the frame following a pair of Cardinal hooking penalties. During the second power play, Cadieux made a series of strong saves to keep the Lakers off the board. However, with four seconds remaining on the second power play at 11:07, Bobby Gertsakis blasted a shot high that bounced off the glass back to the crease where Chris Muise buried the rebound to bring the sellout crowd to its feet.
Oswego State turned up the intensity from that point forward and rarely let the puck out of its offensive zone. The Lakers then pulled Hare with 1:03 remaining in regulation followed shortly by Plattsburgh calling timeout. However, Oswego State was unable to tie the game with the extra skater. The Lakers finished the game 1-for-8 on the power play, while Plattsburgh went 0-for-6, but scored the short-handed goal in the first period. Hare stopped 24 shots, including 13 saves in the first period, in his first loss of the season, while Cadieux finished the game with 34 saves.
There were a few things that made this night, and weekend for that matter, interesting and memorable. Friday night with about two and a half minutes left in the 2nd period the fire alarm went off in the campus center due to the accidentally burning of popcorn in the arena concession stand, leading to the arena having to be cleared. For those of us who remember it, it brought back memories of the 2009 whiteout game when Eric Selleck's glove caught fire while drying in the locker room. So a few Eric Selleck Chants were heard during the weekend because of that.
Now for the actual whteout game.Plattsburgh got an early jump on Oswego. The Lakers kicked things off physically fifteen seconds in with a great hit by Kyle Badham on Jared Docking behind the Plattsburgh net. The hit got the crowd really fired up but knocked Docking for a loop and he was down on the ice for a while. Whatever momentum from the opening seconds of the game Oswego might have had were cooled off by the long delay on the Docking apparent injury. To start the game off Oswego was making too many mistakes, the biggest ones being too many stupid penalties and a bad turnover by Jesse McConney on a powerplay leading to the 2nd Plattsburgh goal. After the way Oswego played Saturday night it will be a real shock if they are still the number one team in the coaches polls. This was the first regular season home loss to Plattsburgh for Oswego since 2009.
The Lakers return to action this weekend in non-conference games. First up will Friday night at 7pm against the Utica Pioneers, then Oswego hits the road for its final game of the first half of the year in Hobart to take on the Statesman at 7PM.
(Part of the story and the photo provided by the Oswego State Sports Information Department)
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