The Oswego State Lakers will travel to Hamilton College to take on the Continentals in a rare Tuesday afternoon match up. Coming off a weekend sweep of the Potsdam Bears the Lakers are looking to add to their win streak with a victory on the road before the short Thanksgiving break starts.
The Lakers are coming off their best weekend of hockey of the season as they moved into third place in the ECAC West back by Mariah Madrigal and Brianna McFall who won ECAC West player of the week honors. Madrigal shutout the Bears in both games and has a shut out streak of 169:21 as of right now to help the Lakers finish off a strong weekend of hockey.
Hamilton College has only played two games all year and are 1-1 so early season miscues could be the story for them tonight and that is something the Lakers need to take advantage of. Oswego State is finally starting to get rolling and have moved up in the standings. Hamilton made it to the quarterfinals last year and are looking to improve this season with a solid senior class that will give the Lakers a test early on.
Being a non conference game Madrigal may not play. If she does you can fully expect her to be just as good as she has been the rest of the season. Sam Walther had a 1.76 GAA last year for Hamilton so a good goalie match up will be in store if she gets the start today. Walther already has a shutout this season.
Players to Watch
Oswego State: Brianna McFall
The freshman won Rookie of the Week for the ECAC West this week while putting up three points, two goals and an assist, in Friday’s game and was a +1 in Saturday’s game. The freshman defenseman has played great all year long alongside Alli Ullrich and now that she has found the back of the net she could be playing at a whole new level of hockey.
Hamilton College: Sara Taffe
The junior defenseman has 22 career points and is always a key player for the Continentals . Her ability to score and shutdown in the defensive end is huge for Hamilton and their defensive minded style of hockey. Taffe will need to be at her best if her and the rest of the team want to control the suddenly hot Oswego State offense.
Game Prediction
Depending on how these teams plays this, especially Oswego State, we could be looking at a slow game to start. The Lakers are playing their best hockey of the season now and should be able to win easily tonight. Yet again, nothing is ever easy in hockey. The defensive style Hamilton College prides themselves on will be tested tonight and if they want to win they need to keep the Lakers to a goal or less. Seeing the Continentals have struggled scoring last season and an Oswego State defense that is playing outstanding, I don’t see many quality scoring chances in store for them tonight.
Lakers win 3-0
