With four different players each scoring a goal, the Oswego State Lakers defeated the Buffalo State Bengals Friday night at home by a score of 4-2. While the scoreboard shows was only a two-goal lead, the Lakers dominated all night, outshooting the Bengals 62-20, en route to the Lakers’ fifth straight win against the Bengals.

With the victory, the Lakers improve to 5-4-1 (4-3-1 in SUNYAC) on the season while the Bengals fall to 4-5-3 (2-4-1). The Lakers remain third in the SUNYAC with the win and currently have nine points, while the Bengals fall from sixth place to seventh, with only five points so far on the season.

Oswego head coach Ed Gosek was proud of the extra movement his players put in to keep the game at high-speed pace.

“We moved our feet,” Gosek said. “Our forwards, for the first time this year put the pressure on. I think for the most part, our [defense] simplified the game moving the puck north and south as quickly as they could. That allowed us to help transition the puck.”

The biggest difference the team made that led to the offensive explosion tonight was the puck movement and aggressiveness the team showed crashing the net and finishing shots. Last weekend at the Radisson Thanksgiving Showcase in Utica against St. Thomas and St. John’s, the team took many shots from near the blue line and Gosek said they focused more on slap shots than moving the puck.

“[Last weekend in Utica] Our shot selection was poor, just not smart,” Gosek said. “But tonight I thought we shot the puck with authority. We haven’t been scoring, right? So to try and snipe goals to try and get the perfect goal, it’s not happening. I think for the most part, other than Waterstreet’s, were just all hard-working goals.”

Waterstreet’s goal, which was a slap shot from near the red dot in the face off circle, snuck past Buffalo State’s goalie Matt DeLaVergne’s glove to give the Lakers a 3-1 lead. Besides that goal, the other three goals by the Lakers were scored right near the crease either on a cross-ice pass or a rebound of the goalie.

“I think it was just more hard work,” sophomore forward David Ferreira said.

Ferreira, who had a goal and an assist tonight, also felt that the team wasn’t taking the right shots last weekend.

“This week we were just throwing it to the net and banging them [pucks] home and bearing down in front of the net,” he said.

Gosek that it was a philosophical change during the week in practice to help get out of the shooting slump, saying they would have to find other ways to manufacture goals.

Junior Adrian Ignagni got the start in the net tonight, his fourth of the season, as he collected his third win. Although it had seemed Matt Zawadzki had regained his starting role in the lineup last weekend in a shutout against St. John’s, Gosek said he was inactive tonight for team disciplinary reasons.

Both teams combined for 12 penalties in the game with seven and five called for Oswego and Buffalo State, respectively.

Gosek said that most of the calls his team deserved, but mentioned that there were a few that could have severely impacted the game had it been closer. He said that the call on J.J. Hart late in the third period was the correct call, but disagreed with the referees’ decision to call hooking on Chris Raguseo right before that.

“Now you’re done five on three on a call he has to call,” he said.

The referees also wiped away a Kenny Neil empty-net goal at the end of the third that would have given the Lakers a 5-2 lead. The goal was called back after the refs decided that Matt Galati was offside on the play.

Although they did not put any numbers up on the scoreboard, forwards Mitchell Herlihey and Shawn Hulshof played significant time on the second line, after both suffered injuries last weekend. Gosek says that both players health improve moving forward.

“We hope so, we’ll see,” Gosek said. They’re both far from 100 percent, but they both were gritty. They were willing to sacrifice tonight, they’re playing through pain [and] they’re playing through injuries. That’s what it takes in games like this.”

The Lakers now find themselves above .500 and look to get two games above .500 for the first time this season.

“The momentum part, we need it,” Gosek said. “We had a gritty win last Saturday night. We want to string three wins together here to go into the break feeling good about ourselves at Christmas.”

“It’s definitely a team thing,” Ferreira said. “I think once our team gets going forward, everyone gets going.”

The Lakers will host SUNY Fredonia tomorrow night in the annual ‘Teal Gate’ game, raising awareness for ovarian cancer, who Gosek’s wife, Mary, has defeated twice within the past three years.

Oswego will wear Teal uniforms and auction off jerseys with proceeds going to ovarian cancer research.

Puck drop will be at 7 p.m.