No. 9 Oswego State (15-6-2, 8-5-1) got off to a slow start for the second consecutive night en route to second loss in as many nights versus the College at Brockport (8-12-3, 5-8-1) , 3-2. The Lakers had not had a weekend like that since White Out Weekend in December 2008.

While last night the Lakers were able to get out to an early lead on a goal by freshman Chris Waterstreet, the Golden Eagles were able to get out to a first period lead and never look back, starting at the 4:34 mark.

The play started when sophomore Jonathan Demme found fellow sophomore Chase Nieuwendyk on the dot in the left circle. Nieuwendyk sent a bouncing puck Laker sophomore goalie Justin Gilbert’s way, which got over the goalie’s glove to the right pipe and onto the stick of senior Chris Cangro for the finish.

Oswego State came right back at Brockport’s goaltender Aaron Green, but as he did for much of the evening the junior stood tall. The Mount Albert, Ont. native finished the game with 45 saves. On the other end of the ice, Gilbert finished the contest with 21 shots stopped.

Around the midpoint of the period, the Golden Eagles would strike again and this time it was sophomore Shane Cavalieri. Freshman Nick Marinac and junior Troy Polino worked together to get the puck in the low slot for the Richmond Hill, Ont. native who lifted the puck over Gilbert’s right shoulder to expand the lead to two.

As the period went on, Green did well to cover pucks but the Lakers puck movement improved at the same time until the two factors came to a head at 18:05 of the period and the hosts found their response.

Freshman Stephen Johnson sent a puck to the point and onto the stick of junior assistant captain Bobby Gertsakis. From there, Gertsakis sent a shot to Green’s right and the goaltender sent it away with his blocker, but it found freshman Chris Waterstreet’s stick and for the second night in the row he grabbed the first goal for Oswego State.

In the second, the Lakers continued to step up their pressure and, even though they produced their fewest shots in a period all night, the quality of chances was high. However, Green and the Golden Eagles’ defense were up to the task and, along with a strong effort by Gilbert and company each side was held scoreless for the 20-minute span.

The goalless period ended at 25:57 when Jesse Facchini scored the eventual game winner at 4:02 of the third period.

The sophomore found a wide open left side of the net to put the puck in with Gilbert defending the right side of the crease and the initial shot by freshman Rob Hall from the top of the right circle. Senior Brendan Rothfuss was awarded the secondary assist on the play.

After Facchini’s goal, evening the score became further out of reach and the search for a second goal started to seem like an unfruitful venture, until the captain delivered in his final regular season home game.

Freshman Chris Raguseo, who earned his first collegiate point at Brockport back in November, sent the puck in behind the net and onto the stick of fellow freshman Matt Galati. Then, Galati sent the puck to the low slot for senior captain David Titanic who scored his eighth goal of the season, cutting the deficit to one.

Laker head coach Ed Gosek called a timeout 28 seconds later to set up a plan for grabbing the game-tying goal. About an equal amount of time later, Gosek pulled Gilbert for the final 1:30. Waterstreet, Galati and Gertsakis each almost found a third goal, but no finish came as the buzzer sounded with Brockport taking the victory, 3-2.

With Buffalo State (9-5-5, 6-4-4) off for the night, Oswego State holds on to third place by one point over the Bengals. The Golden Eagles grabbing the win allowed them to keep pace with SUNY Potsdam (9-12-2, 4-8-2) and held on to their one point lead for sixth place. The Bears completed the weekend sweep of Morrisville State (5-17-2, 2-13-1) tonight, 7-4.

Next weekend, the Lakers finish off the regular season with their annual journey to the North Country for a weekend at SUNY Potsdam and No. 6 SUNY Plattsburgh (18-3-2, 11-1-2) on Friday and Saturday respectively.