Oswego State Men's Hockey Claim Pathfinder Championship

For the first time since the 2009-2010 season, the Oswego State Men's Hockey team captured the Pathfinder Back Oswego Hockey Classic Championship. Oswego came up short against Neumann in the championship game of last years tournament but rebounded this season and in a very big way. The four teams in this years tournament were Lawerence, Castelton State, Plymouth State, and of course Oswego State. Game one of the tournament saw Lawrence College beat Castelton State 2-1. Then in the night game of the opening day Oswego took on Plymouth State in front of a nice sized crowed. Oswego controlled the play for most of the game and skated away with a 6-2 victory. Andrew Wigg got the scoring started for Plymouth 4:40 into the hockey game with a short handed goal, his 3rd overall on the season. That lead would last for about 30 seconds as at the 5:12 mark Jesse McConney tied the game on the powerplay, his 2nd goal of the year. Senior Captain Jon Whitelaw made his return to the lineup and had an immediate impact as he scored his 3rd of the year at the 10:47 mark of the period to give Oswego the lead.  Luke Moodie would score his 11th of the year, a powerplay goal, a little over a minute later to increase the Lakers lead to two. Kyle Greco tallied for Plymouth State to cut the lead down to just one, but then Chris Ayotte decided to show up. Ayotte scored a pair of goals before the period came to a close, both on the powerplay, to stake Oswego to a 5-2 lead at the end of the 1st. The only other goal scored that night was by Chris Carr, his 4th of the year, at the 1:15 mark of the 3rd period.

Jack Astedt was in net for Plymouth State and took the loss, making 31 saves. Dan Jones got his first start of the year, and saw playing time in only his 2nd game of the year, and took the win for Oswego, making 27 saves. Plymouth State went 0 for 3 on the powerplay, while Oswego went 4 for 9 with the Man Advantage. Laker captain Jon Whitelaw played in his first game in almost two months after missing time with a high ankle sprain, and came back with a bang registering three points on a goal and two assists.

The next day saw the championship and consolation games be played and it was just as entertaining a day of hockey as the day before. In the consolation game, Castelton state beat Plymouth State 4-3. The Championship game saw Oswego take on Lawrence. The following recap of the game is provided to us by the Oswego State Sports Information Department:

Jesse McConney was named Most Valuable Player after tallying six points on three goals and three assists, including a pair of goals and a pair of assists in the title game. Chris Ayotte was also named to the all-tournament team following his third power-play goal of the weekend Monday afternoon.

The Vikings went on the offensive early in the contest when they had a 5-on-3 situation for 1:14 in the opening two minutes. Zach Josepher, Chris Brown, and McConney kept Lawrence at bay for all but five seconds of the two-skater advantage, as the scoreboard remained blank.

The Lakers scored the first of four power-play goals at 7:55 in the first. Brown fed Nick Rivait at the blue line. Rivait's shot was blocked, but landed on the tape of Chris Muise's stick for the open net.

Just over five minutes later, Denton King created an offensive opportunity for Oswego State when he sent a no-look pass from the net along the board into the slot with hopes of finding an open player. David Titanic pounced on the shot as he hustled off the bench for his third goal of the year.

Oswego State was not done scoring in the first period, though, as Chris Ayotte lit the lamp with another one-timed blast for the circle at 16:37 to put the Lakers ahead 3-0 at the break after out-shooting the visitors, 17-6.

Lawrence started the second period with increased intensity resulting in a pair of Viking goals to make the score, 3-2. Phil Bushbacher put the visitors on the scoreboard at 7:36 in the stanza, while William Thoren cut the deficit in half on a power-play slap shot off a faceoff with 1:04 left in the period.

The Lakers responded right away in the third period when McConney scored his first goal of the game 19 seconds into an Oswego State power play with a slap shot that found its way through traffic at the 1:19 mark. Jon Whitelaw and Paul Rodrigues earned assists on the play.

Minutes later, the Oswego State power play struck again when Tyler Leimbrock dove for a puck that was sliding through the crease from Muise and Brown. Leimbrock got enough of his stick on the puck to send it past Lawrence goalie Fabian Sivnert to make the score, 5-2.

McConney scored his second goal at 14:19 with another shot from the blue line after receiving a series of passes from Whitelaw and Taylor Farris. Oswego State's final goal came with 2:23 remaining in the game following RJay Berra's second marker of the season with an assist going to McConney.

Oswego State ended the game with a 42-21 advantage in shots on goal, while going 4-for-9 on the power play as Andrew Hare registered 19 saves. Lawrence went 1-for-6 with the extra attacker as Sivnert finished the contest with 35 saves.

Joining McConney and Ayotte on the all-tournament team were Lawrence's Fabian Sivnert and Brad Scurfield, Castleton State's Brian Greene, and Plymouth State's Zach Fox.

Oswego State opens 2013 with a pair of road games at Elmira on Friday and Utica on Saturday.

So now that Oswego has returned to form it seems, these next few games are going to be a real test. they have road games at Elmira and Utica this upcoming weekend, and then come home to play Nazareth on January 12th. That Nazareth game will be big because it marks the return to the Campus Center of former Laker head coach George Roll. So now with 2012 behind them, Oswego looks for an even stronger performance in 2013!

(Photo Provided by the Oswego State Sports Information Department)