OSWEGO, N.Y. – The Oswego State men’s hockey team’s season came to a head on Saturday night. A SUNYAC Championship bout against the programs biggest and longest rival, the Plattsburgh Cardinals, in the Deborah F. Stanley Ice Arena. The squads finished one and two in the SUNYAC regular season standings, and were playing for the fourth time this season. The Lakers were leading the series 2-1, but the second win over the Cardinals didn’t count for SUNYAC standings as it was in a winter break tournament.
It took just two minutes for the Cardinals to find the back of the net. Plattsburgh’s Adam Tretowicz stole the puck from an Oswego defender, skated across the face of the goal, and buried it in the top left corner. From there it was a very back on forth first period, and also a very physical one. Plenty of big hits across the middle and against the boards, some of which resulted in penalties. The first penalty of the period was a goalie interference call against Connor Sleeth who checked Plattsburgh goalie Eli Shiller who was out of his goal. The second penalty was against Ryan Dickinson for elbowing, both penalties were killed by the Lakers. Plattsburgh Jacob Modry took a cross checking penalty with less than a minute left in the period. At the end of the first the Cardinals were up 1-0. Shiller made six saves in the first period, Cal Schell had four.
The second period was goalless, but wasn’t lacking in action. The period started with the Cardinals killing the penalty. The Lakers took the next penalty, and killed it. In the fifth minute, both squads took rough calls, meaning it was 4-on-4 for the whole 2-minutes. Once again the special team’s units came up big for both squads. Another two penalties against the Cardinals were called during the period. Shiller made another six saves in that period, while the Schell had seven.
In the third period, the Cardinals took another early penalty, but once again killed it. Both teams weren’t effective on power. play in the game, Plattsburgh being 0-3, Oswego going 0-4. The Lakers were the most productive in the third period, with 15 shots on goal, more than doubling their shots output, from 12 to 27 total in the game. Despite that it was Plattsburgh that doubled their advantage with less than four minutes in the game. The Lakers didn’t go down with out a fight though and with less than a minute a slap shot from Tommy Cahill finally go the Lakers on the board. From there they pulled Cal Schell, but couldn’t get another in the net. The Cardinals captured their first SUNYAC title since 2017. Shiller finished the game with 26 saves, while Schell made 18 total.
Oswego finished their season 17-9-1 (12-4-0 SUNYAC). In the final national poll they are ranked 12. Senior forward Alex DiCarlo finished with a team high 13 goals. Junior Forward Shane Bull finished with with the team high in assists (19) and points (28). Freshman goalie Cal Schell finished the season 2.13 GAA and a .923 SV%. The Lakers lose eight seniors to graduation, D Troy Robillard, D Quinn Warmuth, F Tommy Cahill, F Thomas Rocco, F Garrett Clegg, F Alex DiCarlo (A), G Eric Green, D Ryan Bunka (C).
IMAGE PROVIDED BY ERIN BLANK, WTOP10 PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT
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