The Oswego State women’s hockey team completed a back to back weekend sweep of the Cortland Red Dragons by winning 2-0 today. The victory propels the Lakers to a perfect (6-0-0) record to start the season. The loss for Cortland drops their record to a winless (0-4-0) to start off their season.
It was one of those wins for Oswego State that was dominating but yet somewhat frustrating. The Lakers dominated puck possession and were constantly attacking, and fore-checking in Cortland’s defensive zone, but only lead 1-0 after 2 periods. The goal that got them to 1-0 was a beautiful tic tack toe passing play finished by a beautiful one timer by Alexa Aramburu to make it 1-0.
Besides that, the Lakers couldn’t get one past Cortland’s Goaltender Rachel Farmer who played both games this weekend. The quality scoring chances just weren’t coming. Even though Cortland couldn’t possess the puck and were stuck in their zone pretty much the whole game, they still defended well throughout a majority of the contest. The domination in all three zones by Oswego State was evident, but so was the frustration of only being up 1-0 for a majority of the game.
When asked about how frustrating this game was the Head Coach of the Oswego State Lakers Diane Dillon said, “It’s tough, anytime it’s a one goal game a team is hanging around and one fluke play just like yesterday with two strange goal a team is in it. So we want to make sure we are burying these opportunities and we created a lot today but we forced things.”
Coach Dillion continues, “We didn’t seem to find that clean shot as often as we have liked or like we did in the past but again I think you have to give Cortland some credit. Cortland played tough defense today Their physical, they never quit, they work hard on the back-check, and they made it very difficult for us to have any open ice to create those opportunities.”
When asked about her team’s performance today compared to yesterday, Coach Dillion said, “What I liked today compared to yesterday was that we possessed the puck a little bit more efficiently and cleanly. We did a nice job on the face off dots which really sets the tone because when your winning offensive zone face offs your creating something and certainly we did a nice job in the defensive zone as well to mitigate and opportunities they might have.”
Coach Dillon continues, “While we didn’t get some of the quality shots we wanted we still popped 34 shots on their net which is great.”
A win is certainly a win and in this case it was an impressive one with Oswego State looking forward to their 2 game series against rival Plattsburgh next week. When asked about their upcoming test against a top opponent coach Dillon said, “we have some great momentum going into this game. This is a new team we have ten new players and veterans that are really stepping up along with solid goaltending so this is a whole new Lakers squad heading into Plattsburgh. This will be a good test for us we look forward to the challenge and its time to head up to Plattsburgh.”
This is a test that will show where Oswego State is compared to one of the elite teams in the SUNYAC. They look forward to the challenge and so will Plattsburgh. It will make for a great matchup next weekend from Plattsburgh.
