Oswego prevailed on Friday in its big match up against Geneseo, 4-2. It wasn’t easy.
“It was what we expected, a tight, checking battle,” Oswego coach Ed Gosek said. “Geneseo works extremely hard. They had opportunities, and our goalie played very well. We had opportunities, and their goalie played very well.”
“I think we did a good job making them play a sloppy game for the first two periods,” Geneseo coach Chris Schultz said. “We were in a good position to win the game.”
Jon Whitelaw gave the Lakers the lead at 12:20, but 1:34 later, Zachary Vit tied it up thanks to a turnover at the blue line. Andrew Mather scored the first of his two goals off a rebound to give Oswego the 2-1 lead at the first intermission.
Then, Mather was involved in the turning point of the game when he took an interference penalty late in the first period, which carried over to the second. When the penalty was over, Mather bolted out of the penalty box behind the Geneseo defense, received a pass from Ian Boots, and went in alone against Adrian Rubeniuk, beating him over the blocker at 1:01.
“That was a big goal that took the winds out of their sails,” Gosek said.
“We caught a really bad break with one of their guys coming out of the penalty box,” Schultz said. “That was the turning point in the game.”
Vit got his second of the night five minutes later to cut the lead to one, which it remained for the rest of the period.
“We had opportunities to make it 3-3,” Schultz said. “Then, in the third period, we took a bad penalty. It changed the momentum. Soon thereafter, they scored a two-on-one goal.”
That penalty was Carson Schell for cross checking. Just 16 seconds after the penalty expired, Matt Singleton gave Oswego the clinching goal at 12:41.
“It allowed us to relax,” Gosek said.
At this point, Geneseo had to do what they didn’t want to do, open the game up and take chances, leaving themselves exposed. Though the Lakers didn’t take advantage of it on the scoreboard, they did outshoot Geneseo in the final period, 26-6. Overall, Oswego levied 50 shots on Geneseo’s net to 22 by the Ice Knights.
Andrew Hare made 20 saves for the win, while Rubeniuk stopped 46.
Other Highlights
– In a back-and-forth contest which saw nine goals scored in the second period, Cortland prevailed over Brockport, 7-5. Brockport led 2-0, only to be tied, then retake the lead, 3-2. Cortland reversed the score, taking a 4-3 lead when Brockport did the same to take a 5-4 lead. Cortland scored the final three goals, the last on an empty-netter, for the final score reversal.
– Geneseo had a tougher time than expected in beating Cortland, 4-2. The Ice Knights took a 3-0 lead, only to have Cortland fight back with two scores, the latter on a short-handed tally by Stephen Nardi. Geneseo then got a short-handed goal of its own by Clint Olson to clinch the game.
– After letting up the first goal of the game, Fredonia scored five answered goals for a 5-1 win over Morrisville. Mark Friesen made 27 saves for the win.
– Buffalo State also had an easy time against Morrisville, winning 7-2. Trevor McKinney and Mike Connolly scored twice while Kevin Carr made 31 saves.
– Oswego got another 50 shots in Saturday’s game, easily beating Brockport, 7-1, as they scored twice in the first 1:34. Jon Whitelaw scored twice and Zack Josepher got four assists. Dan Jones made 27 saves.
– Vick Schlueter scored twice for Plattsburgh as its defeated Potsdam, 4-1. Schlueter’s second goal was on a power play, the first man-advantage goal let up by Potsdam this year. Josh Leis stopped 20 shots for the win.
