A legendary third period from the Lakers was the story of their 5-3 win tonight. Four goals in just twenty minutes was enough to overcome the 3-1 deficit Oswego State faced heading into the final frame.
Goals from Shawn Hulshof, Kenny Neil, Jody Sullivan, Stephen Johnson and Alex Botten led the Lakers past the Ice Knights for the first time since the 2014-2015 season in a game that people will be talking about for a long time. The Lakers dominated in shot attempts tonight, but weren’t good enough in the first 40 minutes overall. That all changed during the second intermission.
“That’s one of those character games where we’re sitting there between the second and the third and just say ‘we gotta find a way’,” Matt Zawadzki said after making 19 saves on 22 shots. “This team is different and we’re going to work hard no matter what the score is and we’re going to go out there and keep battling. And that’s what we did.”
The Lakers and the Ice Knights were knotted at zero in a fairly uneventful first period up until the 15:58 mark. Neither team had that many quality chances in the first, but Geneseo capitalized on one of their few prime scoring opportunities.
Arthur Gordon went hard to the net and was able to tip in a puck that squirted through Zawadzki off the stick of Andrew Romano. Conlan Keenan got the secondary assist on the opening tally.
This was the first time all season the Lakers allowed the first goal of the game and had to play from behind.
“We talked about this year that we wanted to win games just on hard work, by outworking teams and being more disciplined,” head coach Ed Gosek said. “I think tonight gave us the opportunity to come from behind and get involved.”
The Lakers only took three penalties all night against Geneseo. Gosek acknowledged postgame that his team staying out of the box tonight helped give his guys “some jump in their legs” in the third because they weren’t overused on the penalty kill through the first 40 minutes.
Oswego State had taken 16 penalties in its three games prior. This has been an issue in the early going and they would have to stay out of the box against one of the best power play units in the SUNYAC.
“They have a very good power play,” Gosek said. “They’ve got skilled guys that have been together for a long time.”
David Szmyd pushed the Geneseo lead to 2-0 at 5:53 of the second as Jack Ceglarski’s shot in close bounced right to Szmyd in the slot as he buried it on a knee past a sprawling Zawadzki. That’s the result of following your pass and going to the net hard.
Oswego State was able to get one back in the second on the power play. Their sixth marker on the man advantage this season got them back to within one. Hulshof received a pass at the top of the circles from Matt Galati that he ripped home at the 12:43 mark.
“Kenny [Neil] did a real good job in the corner there battling,” Hulshof said. “He got it up to [Galati], [I] yelled for [Galati]. At first, I was gonna one time it, but it wasn’t in my wheelhouse and then I looked up saw the guy was in front of me and just tried to go far side and it worked out.”
Under a minute later, the Ice Knights took the air out of the building when Stephen Collins scored his third of the year. He beat Zawadzki after Cam Hampson found Collins with a lot of shooting space in close and was able to make it 3-1.
Zawadzki seemed to be slightly out of position on two of Geneseo’s goals tonight. Being more responsible in the defensive zone should cure that and has to be something the Lakers stress this week.
“I think all of us, we just need to be a little better in our zone and be aware of who’s around us,” Zawadzki said. “Collectively we battled through that adversity and we’ll correct that next week coming up against Cortland.”
Devin McDonald is one of the best goalies in the SUNYAC, ranking third in both goals against average and save percentage in the SUNYAC last season. Going in the Lakers knew they had to throw pucks on net all night.
“[McDonald] played real well,” Sullivan said. “He’s a top goalie for a reason, but we just had to get shots on him and that’s the way we found the back of the net.”
The Lakers had the majority of the possession, leading 40-17 in shot attempts at the end of the second period, but they couldn’t bury their chances.
That was the case again early in the third when the line of Jody Sullivan, Matt Galati and Andrew Barton got the crowd into on an early shift. Barton had a prolonged shift, but still created turnovers in the Geneseo end and those three were close to putting one away, but again, couldn’t find the back of the net.
That pressure was carried over into the rest of the third and sparked a comeback that saw Oswego State put up four goals against the No. 4 ranked team in the nation.
Those four goals put away any thoughts that the Lakers can’t play from behind. Tonight’s game was the first time all season that the Lakers had to play from behind, as already mentioned, but doing so against a top team in the nation last year was no easy task.
Kenny Neil started the comeback with just over three minutes gone in the first. He was the beneficiary of being in the right place at the right time. A loose puck squirted out to him after a mad scramble broke out in front of McDonald on the power play.
Jody Sullivan scored at the 12:11 mark of the third to tie the game at three apiece while 4-on-4. Mitchell Herlihey broke down the wing, drew McDonald out, took a shot, got his own rebound and a nice move to try to tuck it in himself caused a loose puck behind the Geneseo netminder. Sullivan went to the net hard again and was able to put home the tying goal.
The eventual game-winning goal was again the result of chaos in front. This time the puck squirted out to Johnson after Alex Botten’s shot rang off of Ice Knights defenseman Cam Russell’s head as he laid on the ice. Johnson dropping into the slot and being strong on his stick resulted in the game winner with just 41 seconds to go.
Botten should have gotten credit on that goal and would have 99 points in his Laker career. However, Joey Rutkowski and Mitch Herlihey were given the assists.
Botten would then score in the empty net to seal this come-from-behind victory and move to 4-0-0 overall on the season.
The Lakers will travel to Cortland on Friday to take on the Red Dragons who beat the College at Brockport tonight.
