The Oswego State Lakers defeated the SUNY Morrisville Mustangs 5-1 Friday night, behind Andrew Barton’s first career hat trick.
The Lakers got their first win in over two weeks, impeding a three-game losing streak, one that saw them slip out of the USCHO.com’s national rankings for the first time since 2002.
This win was also the first in the last four chances in which the Lakers have lead 2-0 in the first period and held on to win. The last three occurrences, last season’s Senior Day against SUNY Potsdam, this season’s exhibition game against the CCHL All-Graduate team and last weekend’s Whiteout game versus SUNY Plattsburgh all saw the Lakers jump out to 2-0 leads in the first period but went on to lose.
Oswego’s head coach Ed Gosek believes that his team played well, but that the difference between the last few games and tonight’s game was the lucky bounces his team got in its favor to put the puck behind the net.
“Some pucks started to fall that haven’t been falling,” Gosek said. “We played tough, [we] didn’t give them anything easy. Those little plays, they add up over the course of the game [and] over the course of the season.”
Barton, who now leads the team with four goals so far on the season, was able to light the lamp in every period of the game.
“Pucks were just going in for me,” Barton said. “It was nice to get some goals on the score sheet.”
While he did score three goals, one could argue all of those were far from what was drawn up.
On his first goal, Barton took the puck between the blue line and the face off circle and headed for the net. However, he was tripped on the play by a Morrisville player. Although the referees did not whistle what seemed an obvious penalty, Barton got back up immediately with his momentum carrying him forward and was able to recover the puck and give his team a two-goal lead.
On his second goal, Barton was actually looking to dump off a pass to David Ferreira, but a Morrisville player stuck his stick out and deflected. However, once again, Barton recovered the puck and beat the opposing goalie CJ Sharp.
Barton said he just wanted to keep his feet moving and continue toward the not in hopes of the shots falling and that is exactly what happened.
One key difference in tonight’s game was the pressure that the defense took off the goalie, something that has plagued the Lakers all season.
With Ignagni getting his first start of the season, his teammates elevated their level of play and only allowed him to face 19 shots on goal all night.
“I thought in the first period it looked like he was having a little trouble tracking the puck, but I thought as he settled in and got comfortable, he got better,” Gosek said. “I think our back pressure and being able to strip from behind allow our [defense] to have a tighter gap and make plays in transition.”
Gosek said that the team’s emphasis will continue to be on defensive improvements until one of the three goals gets up to speed.
“We had a lot of talks this week with guys about raising their level of play,” he said.
Gosek believed that the quality of the shots were not much different from last weekend, but the team’s ability to finish and have better luck with pucks finding the back of the net made the difference.
“It’s no secret,” Gosek said. “We had not been playing poorly. I give the credit mostly to the players. There’s been no finger-pointing, no blaming anyone. They’ve stuck together [and] they believe in themselves.”
“I think just getting the ball rolling in the right direction [and] moving forward from the past and getting some wins in the columns is going to be huge for us,” Barton said.
The Lakers will head on the road to face Morrisville tomorrow night, in Morrisville. Gosek that he and the coaching staff have not declared a starter for tomorrow night’s game in the goal.
Oswego will be looking to get back to .500 on the season. Puck drop will be at 7 p.m.
