The Oswego State men's ice hockey team used two, three-goal periods to fend off Cortland 6-4 on Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd in the Marano Campus Center Arena. With the win, the nationally-ranked Lakers stay a perfect 3-0-0 both overall and in SUNYAC action while Cortland falls to 0-2-1, 0-2-1.
Oswego earned two goals within the first 2:30 of the game, starting with a power-play goal at 1:56. Just 12 seconds after Cortland was whistled for cross-checking, the Lakers used tic-tac-toe passing as Matt Galati found Shawn Hulshof who found Kenny Neil for an easy goal. The squad was ready for another less than 35 seconds after the Neil goal as Andrew Barton made the raucous crowd grow even louder. Barton blasted home a score past the goalies left-side with assists credited to Krystian Yorke and senior captain Bobby Gertsakis.
Later in the period, Cortland made a poor line change and were caught for too many men on the ice at 12:35. Oswego wasted no time again on the power-play, this time notching a tally just four seconds into the extra-man opportunity. Gertsakis started the passing for his second assist of the night, finding Alex Botten who distributed the puck to Hulshof for a score at 12:39.
Cortland would not go quietly, however, nabbing two goals in the second period to make things interesting. At 5:23 of the middle period, the Red Dragon's made it a 3-1 game on a Nick Zappia goal. Just over 10 minutes later, Tommy Nolan notched a score of his own to narrow the Laker lead to one. Nolan and Oswego's Mike Wills would receive facemask game misconducts after a scrum in front of the Laker net with under two minutes remaining in the second.
The Red Dragons completed its comeback early in the final period as Dan Broderick poked home a goal at 2:23 to even the score at 3-3. Oswego immediately ended its scoring drought a minute later to regain the lead for good. Hulshof sent an outlet pass to Neil who guided the puck in front of the Red Dragon goalie toMike Montagna for the Fulton native's first goal of the year.
Oswego tacked on two more scores in the third, starting with its third power-play goal of the evening. Galati scored at 8:25 from Neil and Botten. Later, Botten beat the goalie off assists from Carr and Galati at 15:24 to make it a 6-3 game. The Red Dragons got its final goal in the final minute of play to round out the scoring.
Mackenzie Sawyer earned his first career start and win in net for the Lakers, making 20 saves on the night.
As a squad, Oswego outshot Cortland 36-24 on the night and had a 50% success rate on the power play (3-for-6). The Laker penalty kill was exceptional in the game, holding the Red Dragons off the board during seven extra-man chances.
Oswego will be back in action at 7 p.m. on Friday when SUNY Canton comes to campus as the Lakers kickoff their 50th Anniversary Weekend.
