The Oswego State men's ice hockey team captured its third-straight PathFinder Bank/Oswego State Hockey Classic with a 5-2 win over Nazareth College in the championship game. With the win, the Lakers improve to 9-1-2 on the season while the Golden Flyers drop to 5-5-3. It is Oswego's second win over Nazareth this campaign, shutting out the Golden Flyers 4-0 at home on Nov. 15.
Mitchell Herlihey was donned the tournament most valuable player as he finished the two-day event with four points, including a goal and two assists in the championship contest. The freshman was joined on the All-Tournament team by teammates Matt Zawadzki, Brandon Adams and Stephen Johnson. Also honored with a selection to the squad was St. Scholastica's Stephen Phee and Nazareth's Don Olivieri.
John Jackson, a transfer playing in just his second game for Oswego, set the tone early with a great move on the break to beat a defender, feeding a pass to Chris Waterstreet for a goal 13:20 into the opening period. Adams was also in on the goal, starting the break by finding Jackson out wide.
Nazareth answered five minutes later with a goal of its own, as James Redman notched a score to even the game at 1-1. The 1-1 tie would last into the first intermission.
Oswego caught fire in the second period, scoring four goals to pull away from its opponents. Herlihey got the first tally 6:02 into the period on assists from Chris Raguseo and Mike Wills. Herlihey then switched caps and became a distributor, finding Shawn Hulshof for a blasted goal with less than five to play in the period. In the final minute of the second, Mike Montagna scored with Herlihey and Wills teaming up to locate their teammate with 47 seconds remaining. Just 28 seconds later, the Lakers were at it again, this time with Adams recording a goal from Johnson and Jackson.
The Lakers controlled possession most of the night, winning nearly two-thirds of the face-offs (47-for-71). Zawadzki was solid in net yet again, making 26 saves against the Golden Flyers for a tournament total of 48.
Men's ice hockey will be back in action at 7 p.m. on Friday when it hosts Hobart College in a nonconference matchup
