BROCKPORT, N.Y. – The Oswego State men’s hockey team had a big weekend that had implications for the final SUNYAC standings picture. A Friday night rematch with the Geneseo Knights, this time on home ice, was followed by a Saturday road game against the Brockport Golden Eagles. The best case scenario would have been taking both games, tying Plattsburgh on points with one less game played than them.

One of the most highly anticipated matches of the season for Oswego States fan was Friday’s matchup with the Knights. The Lakers had taken the first game of the season series in Geneseo, and were looking to sweep the series. Geneseo came out firing though, and quickly put the Lakers on their back foot. Nine minutes into the first period they put one past Schell. The Knights doubled their lead before the end of the period and went into the locker rooms with a 2-0 lead. Geneseo’s Matt Petizian was playing out of his mind through the entire game, in the first period alone he had 17 saves. Schell only had 6.

The Knights extent ended their lead once more in the second. In the eighth minute of the period they fired on past Schell for what was the only goal of the frame. The Lakers put themselves in a tough spot in the final minutes of the second, playing a good chunk of the final five minutes down two men. They did a good job killing off all of the penalties and went in to the break on a mini high. Petizian racked up another 13 saves in the period, while Schell had 12 of his own.

The Lakers made some good changes and took advantage of Geneseo’s sloppy play in the third frame. Matt McQuade finally got the Lakers on the board just before the halfway point of the final period of regulation. The Lakers second goal came just four minutes later, this time on the power play. Daniel Colabufo took advantage of the man-advantage to bring the Lakers within one. It was less than three minutes until the game tying goal. Again on the power play, the puck was bouncing around in a scrum in front of the goal when Connor Sleeth poked it out to a wide open Quinn Warmuth. Warmuth buried it past two diving defenders, sending the fan section into raptures. The goal sent the game to OT.  At the end of regulation Matt Petizian, despite giving up the three goals, had raked up 47 to that point. Schell had 21, the total he would end the game at.

In OT, the Lakers found themselves on the man advantage, once more, but couldn’t capitalize. It was Geneseo, in even-strength play, that would get the break-away opportunity, to seal the victory 4-3. Petizian was the star of the game, 53 total saves. Oswego’s Connor Sleeth led the team with eight shots. Seven total Lakers tallied a point, but not one of them more than one point.

After the heartbreaking loss, Oswego had to regroup and head on the road to take on the Brockport Golden Eagles. It was a scoreless first period, again highlighted by the opposing goal tender. Brockport’s Nolan Egbert had 20 saves in the first period, Schell back in net had 11 of his own.

The second period was where the Lakers found their stride from the previous night. Noah Bull found the back of the net first for Oswego, just past the nine-minute mark of the period. He was followed less than two minutes later by Jackson Arcan, this time on the power-play. Brockport was going to go away easily though, they scored a short-handed goal with just over a minute to go in the frame to make it a 2-1 game.

Oswego didn’t take long to recapture the two goal lead they had. Five minutes into the third period Daniel Colabufo found netting for the second time in the weekend, again on the power-play. Oswego scored one more goal to finish the game off, Quinn Warmuth also finding the back of the net for the second time in the weekend. The final score was 4-1. The Lakers out-shot the Golden Eagles 45-32 in the contest. Trent Grimshaw and Alex DiCarlo each had two assists in the game.

After splitting the weekend, but the loss being an OT loss, the Lakers took three points and retained the second place in the SUNYAC they went into the weekend with. Only two points separate the the top three teams, with Oswego sandwiched between Plattsburgh and Geneseo. The top five SUNYAC teams all clinched playoff spots, the rest of the game are all fights for seeding for them. Oswego’s next game is a mid-week matchup with the Morrisville Mustangs, a team they lost to earlier this season, and who are fighting for the final playoff spot in the SUNYAC.

IMAGE PROVIDED BY WTOP10 YOUTUBE