OSWEGO, NY — Men’s Hockey returns home this weekend for a pair of SUNYAC match ups in the last regular season weekend of the 2019-2020 campaign. The Lakers are coming off a successful weekend in Morrisville as the team secured two shutouts and the second seed in the SUNYAC playoffs. The 4-0 and 7-0 wins allowed Oswego to clinch the second seed behind Geneseo. This gave Oswego a bye into the semi-final round of playoffs along with a home game. This also allows the Lakers to finish off the season stress free as these next two match ups are just confidence boosters heading into post season. These two match ups against the two teams from the Buffalo area are however important for these away teams.

Friday night, Buffalo State will travel into the Marano Campus Center as the current fourth seed in the standings. But the Bengals have only clinched a berth to the playoffs and not secured their position in the top six. With Brockport only facing Geneseo this weekend, Buffalo State could pass the Golden Eagles with two wins over Oswego and then Cortland Saturday evening. Buffalo State would have the tiebreaker if the Bengals could only secure one win this weekend, or Brockport does upset Geneseo. For Oswego, a win over Buffalo State would allow the Lakers to sweep the Bengals along with make Buffalo State’s chances of coming back to Oswego for a semi final game even tougher. Steven Kozikoski will most likely start Friday night to stay fresh for playoffs. Kozikoski has started and completed the last 6 of 7 games for the Lakers as the sophomore currently holds a 1.81 goals against average along with a .927 save percentage, the best between all three netminders. This puck drop is set for 7 p.m. but WTOP 10 has you covered with coverage beginning at 6:30.

Saturday Night, the Lakers will face off against Fredonia who’s currently is in last in the SUNYAC standings. Although the team has a 3-8-3 conference record, the Devils still have a chance of making the playoffs with two games this weekend. With a current three way tie for the last spot, Fredonia only sits one point out with a game against Cortland Friday, the current sixth seed. Due to Saturday’s game being Senior Night, expect seniors David Richer and Cedric Hansen split time in net for the Lakers. Richer did start Saturday night’s in Morrisville and secured his 9th collegiate shutout after not playing since January 24th against Cortland, when the Lakers lost in overtime. This game will also have a 7 p.m. puck drop with coverage starting at 6:30 p.m. on WTOP 10. The Senior Night Ceremony will begin directly after the completion of the game.

OSWEGO — Men’s Hockey kicked off their 2019-2020 season with a win over Carleton Place Saturday night. The 9-1 victory in the special Teal Night jerseys saw multiple Lakers getting onto the score sheet by the time the buzzer went off. Senior Derek Brown would net two goals in the first period and one in the third to get a hat trick. Another notable standout was Carter Allen’s three-point effort (1 goal and 2 assists). Each Lakers goalie would spend time in the crease for the team totaling for a combined 19 saves. Men’s Hockey hits the ice on Saturday for one last exhibition game versus Nazareth College at the Marano Campus Center. Puck drop will be at 7 p.m.

GENESEO, NY — The Men’s Hockey team will head to Geneseo this weekend to battle for the SUNYAC Championship. The 16-9-1 Lakers have had an up and down season up to this point, as the group now is on a five-game winning streak fresh of a victory over rivals Plattsburgh. Oswego’s season started back on October 19th with an exhibition game against Carleton Place, then against Nazareth, both wins for the Lakers. The group would head into the regular season and secure four conference wins in a homestand at the Marano Campus Center that would give them first place in the SUNYAC standings.

One turning point in the season came from a road trip to Geneseo, to face a nationally ranked team in the same barn that Oswego lost the SUNYAC Championship in last season. The Lakers would fall apart and lose 9-1 as multiple Lakers would be tossed from the game and miss their next matchup against Hobart. This game would be the start of a three-game losing streak against nationally ranked teams, Hobart and Salve Regina in the Utica Thanksgiving Tournament. Oswego would turn it around on that Saturday in Utica against Plymouth State to give the Lakers hope as the team continued into the last week of the first half of the season. The Lakers would head on the road and swept the Buffalo teams in the conference to finish 7-3 in the first semester.

Oswego would come back from Christmas Break to play in the annual Pathfinder Bank/Oswego State Classic in which the team would first face off against Saint Mary’s. The defending champs would fall to the mid-west team 1-0 and face UNE the following day and also lose 4-3 to start the new year off on the wrong foot. This losing streak would continue against two more nationally ranked teams in the month of January as Utica and Elmira defeated the Lakers in the Marano Campus Center. The Lakers would not defeat any nationally ranked team this season as the group would go 0-6 against those teams, one of the biggest eyesores of the 2019-2020 season.

After losing to Cortland in overtime, Steven Kozikoski, the sophomore netminder that has not played in a regular season game for the Lakers, got his shot in between the pipes as both senior goalies David Richer and Cedric Hansen were not playing their best games. Kozikoski’s first start was against Canton, a team Oswego has figured out the past few seasons. The Lakers took a commanding win in the Marano Campus Center as the group defeated Canton 8-2 and was one of the turning points that occurred in the second half of the season. The new netminder would go 5-1-1 in net and win his first playoff game for the Lakers this past Tuesday.

The group secured the second seed in the standings with their success in the second semester and faced Plattsburgh on home ice. The team would defeat their rivals 4-1 and move on to Geneseo. The Lakers season once again would end in Geneseo as the Ice Knights defeated Oswego 4-1 in the SUNYAC finals. This would be the second time Oswego would not be able to get it done in the finals while being held at Geneseo. The Lakers would finish 16-10-1 to end the season as the group looks to rebuild as 13 seniors will move on from the program. Moving forward, Oswego looks to rebuild around players like Alex DiCarlo, Travis Broughman, and Steven Kozikoski heading into these next few years as these three players are all underclassmen.