Oswego State won its third straight game this evening over Elmira College after securing a 7-3 victory at the Campus Center Ice Arena.
After seven minutes of play being controlled by the visitors, a penalty on senior defensemen Joe Gagne turned the momentum to the Lakers.
The hosts were one minutes and 37 seconds into the man advantage when the freshmen third line struck again. Kenny Neil sent a shot into the back of the net from the upper left slot off a Shawn Hulshoff pass. Alex Botten was given the secondary assist on the goal.
Less than two minutes later, the Soaring Eagles found their equalizer off an offensive zone faceoff. Sophomore Michael Collins received the puck off the faceoff victory and sent it toward the bottom left corner of the net. Fellow sophomore Jarryd ten Vaanholt was on the doorstep and stuffed the puck passed Oswego State’s sophomore goalie Justin Gilbert.
The Lakers responded by upping their pressure and continued to swarm the Soaring Eagles’ freshman net-minder Sal Magliocco. The hard work would pay off as they scored three goals in the period’s final five minutes and six seconds.
On the first score, freshman Evan Schultz worked hard along the boards to get the puck to the top and found junior Nick Rivait. Rivait threw the puck on net and Magliocco allowed the rebound, which reached junior Mike Montagna, who recorded Oswego State’s second goal.
About three minutes later, Rivait was setting up the play again as he found sophomore Morgan Bonner. Bonner and sophomore Brandon Adams worked the puck down into the low slot where they connected on a tape-to-tape pass, which Adams finished.
Finally, with a minute left in the opening period, freshman Matt Galati sent a shot on goal from behind the net. The puck hit off Magliocco’s pads and slid into the net. Freshman Evan Schultz was awarded his second assist of the night.
In the second period, the Lakers picked up their play and looked impressive. Their puck possession and play on the forecheck led to a serious advantage when it came to time on attack in the period. The fruits of their labor finally came with just under two minutes as Galati struck again.
Galati beat Magliocco over his left shoulder just inside the crossbar off, with assists coming from his line mates Neil and freshman Alex Botten. The goal was Galati’s fourth of the season.
The scoring continued in the third period when Oswego State senior captain Kyle Badham netted his first score of the year just 47 seconds into the period. Badham and junior captain Bobby Gertsakis were rushing the net and the senior sent a shot off a Soaring Eagles defenders stick and into the net. Bonner had found Badham for the score.
About five minutes later, a Galati penalty started a momentum swing for Elmira. One minute and 38 seconds later, freshman Josh Timpano was sent off as well, giving the visitors 22 seconds of five-on-three play.
Elmira, the third best team in the nation on the power play, took advantage at the 7:10 mark when junior Josh Burnell put the puck past Gilbert after sophomore defenseman Denton King was unable to help clear the puck out of the crease.
Forty-one second later, off the following faceoff, sophomore Brian Depp scored Elmira’s second power play goal, cutting the Lakers’ lead in half.
The amount of time on the power play helped the Soaring Eagles start to get into a rhythm, but Oswego State’s defense stood firm. With about five minutes to play, King made up for his earlier fumble by blocking a Max Balaban shot at a wide open net with a full extension.
After nine minutes of hard work, Hulshof repaid his team for its efforts by putting one past Magliocco from between the circles off a pass by senior captain David Titanic. The goal was the last of the game, bringing the contest to its final score.
With the win, Oswego State improves to 3-1 on the season and Elmira falls to 2-4. The Lakers are heading on a Rochester road trip next weekend, where they will be playing SUNY Geneseo (4-1) on Friday night and The College at Brockport (2-3-1) on Saturday night.
