Team Scope
SUNY Fredonia has not really surprised many people this year. They have fallen to Morrisville State in overtime and also lost to both SUNY Plattsburgh and SUNY Geneseo.
However, they have not lost to Buffalo State, the team Oswego State plays tomorrow, in two contests resulting in one tie and one win earlier this year. SUNY Fredonia is currently tied for second in the SUNYAC with Buffalo State as well. Each team has nine points, but SUNY Fredonia has two more games played.
Their numbers show that this is an average team with a really good power play at the moment. The Blue Devils have scored 14 goals on 48 attempts this year, and this has helped keep them competitive and improved overall from a season ago.
“Fredonia has improved,” Gosek said. “And I think it starts with they’re getting solid goaltending, and their special teams to start are much improved from what we can see.”
The Blue Devils will roll out a sophomore goalie in Eric Bogart. Bogart has seen a slight rise in both save percentage and goals against average since last season, but with the Lakers’ offense clicking on all cylinders it should still be tough for Bogart and his 5th best SV% in the SUNYAC to be able to hold down the fort in goal.
“I think [Fredonia plays] a very safe game,” Gosek said. “They’re not going to take a lot of chances. You’re going to get your zone time. Can you get grade-A chances off of it? That’s the question.”
In the Crease
Matt Zawadzki will get the start in net tonight for the Lakers. Zawadzki is second in GAA with a 1.25 mark in the SUNYAC. He also sits in second for SV% with an impressive .943 mark.
The senior started once last year against SUNY Fredonia and stopped 18 shots, allowing two goals in a 7-2 win over the Blue Devils to close out the regular season.
The former Nepean Raider has been the steady senior he needed to be to get the Lakers in a position to win and will need another solid performance again tonight on the road.
Bogart appeared in one game against the Lakers last season. He was given the loss in a 3-2 overtime victory for the Lakers in that game. He has taken over as the No. 1 goalie this season and has taken strides to becoming one of the better goalies in the SUNYAC, even with more untapped potential.
Lineup Card
Sean Federow will play in this one tonight. He has not played in eight games since sustaining a lower-body injury on Oct. 28. He will get his first chance back in the lineup alongside Kristoffer Brun on the top defense pairing. Federow replaces the freshman Charlie Pelnik as the only change to the back end.
The forward lineup returns with a normal look to the bottom six. Jody Sullivan, Aaron Huffnagle, Chris Waterstreet and David Ferreira will draw back in.
Josh Zizek, despite scoring his first collegiate goal last time out, will sit along with TJ Sneath, Tyson Bruce and Cameron Berry to round out the changes to the forward group.
Matt Galati now sits at 98 points after another official scoring change littered another player’s chase for 100 points this season. He stays on the second line with Andrew Barton and Mitchell Herlihey.
Mitch Emerson saw some time on the second power play unit last game. He also was working with that unit again at practice this week. Sullivan and him split reps for the most part as the wing on the unit that is also joined by Chris Raguseo, Joey Rutkowski, Barton and Herlihey. Watch for him to see what kind of offense he can create if given an opportunity on the man advantage.
OSW Lines:
Neil-Botten-Hulshof
Herlihey-Barton-Galati
Huffnagle-Davies-Emerson
Sullivan-Waterstreet-Ferreira
Defense:
Brun-Federow
Johnson-Rutkowski
Raguseo-MacMillan
Goalie:
Zawadzki
Players to Watch
Lakers- Matt Galati
Galati has bounced back from his scoring woes last season. He was unable to bury the puck with regularity last season, but this year his heavy shot has found the back of the net four times so far and has helped tally nine points in eight games played.
He’s on the hunt for 100 and could reach that milestone tonight and become the third Laker to do so this season.
Blue Devils- Bobby Polachek
Polachek scored once against the Lakers last season. Hunter Long was the only other member of the current SUNY Fredonia team to score a goal against the Lakers last season. Polachek has kept up the scoring into this year and has four goals and five assists to keep a point-per-game pace to this point of the season.
Him and Samuel Wilber will need to be the best forwards for the Blue Devils tonight in order to get some scoring chances against the best defense core in the SUNYAC.
By the Numbers
Record
OSW: 9-0-0/7-0-0 (No. 1/1) [1st in SUNYAC]
FRD: 4-4-1/4-3-1 [T-2nd in SUNYAC]
Goals per Game
OSW: 5.44 [1st in SUNYAC]
FRD: 3.11 [6th in SUNYAC]
Goals Against per Game
OSW: 1.33 [1st in SUNYAC]
FRD: 3.11 [4th in SUNYAC]
Power Play
OSW: 11-41 (26.8%) [4th in SUNYAC]
FRD: 14-48 (29.2%) [2nd in SUNYAC]
Penalty Kill
OSW: 39-43 (90.7%) [1st in SUNYAC]
FRD: 31-42 (73.8%) [7th in SUNYAC]
*Overall Statistics
Game Prediction
Oswego State will face a tough test tonight in the Blue Devils. Last year’s matchup at the Steele Hall Ice Arena was terribly one-sided. The Lakers walked away with a 7-2 win that night. This had to leave a bad taste in the mouths of the SUNY Fredonia roster. Add the No. 1 ranking in the mix and saying the Blue Devils will be motivated tonight would be an understatement.
Another second period outburst will give the Lakers the edge they need to hold on. SUNY Fredonia will allow chances, like Gosek alluded to above, but the Lakers don’t seem capable of playing their best hockey to start games to this point in the season. A plus-8 goal differential in the 1st period is the lowest total from the Lakers from any period this season. Zawadzki bails the team out in the first, and the top line of Shawn Hulshof, Kenny Neil and Alex Botten will take over from there.
Lakers win 4-1
Around the SUNYAC
Game of the Night
SUNY Geneseo will be taking on the SUNY Plattsburgh Cardinals tonight at the Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena. Both considered to be top teams in the SUNYAC coming into this season and the two will meet for the first time since SUNY Geneseo steamrolled the Cardinals in the SUNYAC Championships Final, 7-1.
Per the Press-Republican’s Ricky St. Clair, the SUNYAC suspended Cole Stallard two games after he was issued a game misconduct against SUNY Potsdam last weekend. SUNY Plattsburgh will be without its leading scorer in Stallard and also defenseman Patrick Hermans and Jakob Engvall in tonight’s contest.
SUNY Geneseo sits within the top 15 in Div. III hockey at the No. 7/9 spot, but the Cardinals are on the outside looking in and are finding themselves in some trouble in the early going this season.
