Lakers win, tie on Toughest road trip of Year

The Oswego State Lakers skated to a tie against Plattsburgh and a win against Potsdam this past weekend in men's ice hockey action.  Both games were on the road and this tough trip probably ranks as their toughest one of the season. 

The Lakers beat the Bears last night at Maxcy Hall in Potsdam by a score of 6-4.  This game was a lot closer than it probably should have been with the Lakers having a rough defensive game, but it was still an easy win for Oz, who enjoyed a two-goal advantage for the majority of the game. 

The scoring was started by Jon Whitelaw early in the first period on assists by Paul Rodrigues and Luke Moodie.  Taylor Farris then found the net on an assist by Chris Ayotte less than three minutes later.  A little over two minutes after that Trevor Cope got the Bears on the board on a power play goal with assists from Adam Place and Erick Ware.  The Lakers scored one more time late in the third on a power play goal by Eli Kim-Swallow with assists by Whitelaw and Moodie.  The first period ended with a 3-1 Oswego lead.

Max Fogel scored a four-on-four goal late in the second to start the scoring in that period with assists from Kenny Simon and Matt Viola.  Cope found the net again four minutes after that with assists from Sy Nutkevitch and Dan McCamey.  This tied the game at 3-3, and Lakers Coach Ed Gosek opted to yank Dan Jones from the game and replace him with the resting Andrew Hare.  Tyler Leimbrock scored an unassisted goal a couple of minutes later to regain the lead for the Lakers.  The second period ended with a 4-3 Oswego lead, but Potsdam won the period 2-1.

Leimbrock scored late in the third period to give Oswego a two-goal advantage again, with assists from Ian Boots and Kim-Swallow.  This proved to be the game-winner, although Ware found the net for the Bears on a Power Player a minute later with assists from Nutkevitch and Mike Arnold to make this game close once again.  But the Lakers scored one more time with less than a minute to go on an open-netter to seal the deal, with Chris Muise scoring on assists by Andrew Mather and David Titanic.

The game in Plattsburgh was a different story.  Whitelaw got the scoring started for the Lakers early in the first period on assists by Rodrigues and Moodie.  This proved to be the only scoring in the period and Oswego won the first by a score of 1-0.

Paul Puglisi got the scoring started on an unassisted goal very early in the second period to knot the game up at 1-1.  Ayotte found the net five minutes later on assists by Matt Singleton and Titanic to regain the lead for the Lakers at 2-1.  But Alex Jensen scored for the Cardinals a minute later on an assist from Patrick Jobb to tie the game once again at 2-2.  The second period ended with the game tied, although Platty won the period 2-1.

The third period was one of the most exciting full periods the Lakers have played witness to this season, as both teams played their hearts out trying to put this game away.  It was a period for the goaltenders, though, as this game remain tied and went into overtime.

The five minute overtime period was even more exciting than the third, with sudden death spelling victory for one team and doom for the other.  But the goalies reigned supreme again as the period ended scoreless and the game ended in a tie.

Notes:

• There were 2,288 people at the Stafford Ice Arena for Friday's game, not exactly Campus Center numbers but a good crowd for Platty and a much better crowd than the 213 who turned out to watch the game in Potsdam on Saturday.
• Bob Emery brought in the best officials in D-III for Friday night's game, probably the only reason to enjoy watching a game with Emery in Plattsburgh.  The four were Drew White, John Everett, Adam Wood, and Larry Legault.  The game in Potsdam featured a more pedestrian crew of Mike Jones, Will O'Malley, Wood, and Travis Hanson.
• Speaking of Emery, the Bears got burned late in the third on a "Bob Emery Special" (open-net goal) to drill the nail in the coffin on Saturday.
• The Platty game is always intense for both sides in both arenas, but despite the intensity the game was played very cleanly both ways, with the whistle only being blown three times, all on two-minute penalties.  The aggressive Lakers only sent one player to the box.  Neither team recorded a power play goal.
• The goaltending was spectacular in Plattsburgh.  Hare made 35 saves and only allowed two goals to score.  His save percentage for the game was 94.59 %.  Platty's Matthieu Cadieux saved 34 of 36.
• The Platty game was probably the most evenly-matched game of hockey in the SUNYAC in recent memory, with the game ending in a tie and being close to even in almost every category.  The Cardinals out-shot the Lakers 37-36.
• By contrast, the Lakers out-shot the Bears 53-27, nearly doubling the output by Potsdam.
• The Bears made the most of their shots though, getting four into the net.
• The goalie problem in Oswego continues and the presence of Paul Beckwith is still sorely missed.  Although Hare stepped up big against Platty, he clearly doesn't have the full confidence of Gosek.  Jones was given the start in place of Hare against the lowly Bears on Saturday.  Hare probably would have benefited from a day off after a rigorous game against Platty and Potsdam usually is a pushover.  But Jones played terribly, allowing a fifth of the shots against him into the net and Hare was forced into action.  This is the fourth time in four years that Beckwith has been replaced by a backup due to injury or illness.  Chris Hyk was an abysmal failure and Tim Potter was passable in 2008-2009.  Kyle Gunn-Taylor played very well in 2009-2010 and led the Lakers to the Frozen Four.  And now we have had Hare and Jones for parts of the past two seasons.  Lakers fans have already had to endure images of Tyler Laws and Joe Hall dressed in goalie garb during Beckwith's much-maligned tenure, and things haven't gotten a whole lot better with Jones getting serious playing time this season, although he generally plays well.  All-in-all though, there's a reason he's a third-string goalie.