The Oswego State men's ice hockey team, ranked No. 6 by D3hockey.com and eighth by USCHO, cruised past Potsdam 7-1 on Saturday night at Maxcy Ice Arena on the Bears' campus. Oswego's victory completed a two-win SUNYAC weekend after the Lakers downed No. 4/4 Plattsburgh on Friday, bringing their overall record to 7-1-2 with a 5-1-1 mark in league play. Potsdam fell to 4-4-1, 2-4-1 with the loss at home.
In the first period, the Lakers were able to grab an early lead at 9:52 as Mike Montagna found Mike Wills for a one-timer. The pair of Mikes were also helped by Chris Raguseo, who was credited with an assist on the score.
Oswego's one-goal lead would hold heading into the intermission but would be added to quite frequently in the second period. Raguseo and Montagna were at it again, teaming up to find Shawn Hulshof for a goal, putting Oswego up 2-0 at 4:18. Less than two minutes later, Raguseo started another string of passing that would end with a goal, this time feeding Andrew Barton who found line-mate Krystian Yorke for a score to make it 3-0 Oswego. Barton and Yorke, part of the third line along with Josh Timpano, were foreshadowing more to come in the final 13:55 of the second period.
Yorke got his second goal of the game at 14:23 after Barton and Timpano worked together to find their teammate for a goal. Four minutes later, the trio was at it again, this time with Yorke and Timpano assisting Barton on a score. Barton's tally made it a comfortable 5-0 margin, which the Lakers would take into the final break.
In the final period, Oswego and Potsdam would trade a goal apiece within a two minute span before the Lakers got the game's final goal on a power play. The Lakers' first third-period point came off a Kenny Neil goal with helpers going to Brandon Adams and Alex Botten. After the Bears were whistled for high-sticking in the final two minutes of regulation, Hulshof notched his second score of the day with assists to Bobby Gertsakis and Matt Galati.
Matt Zawadzki started in net and, despite playing with the lead for the majority of the night, saw a fair amount of action. The sophomore made 28 stops while only allowing one goal late in the final period.
Oswego out-shot Potsdam 54-29 on the night while winning 13 more face-offs (46-33). The Lakers' 54 shots is the most in a game this season and their highest output since putting up 55 shots on the Bears exactly one-year ago to the day.
With the holiday season and winter break approaching, the Lakers will be off until the New Year. They will return at 7 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 2 as Tufts University faces the squad in the first day nightcap of the PathFinder Bank/Oswego State Holiday Classic.
