With four different goal scorers for the No. 6/7 Oswego State men’s ice hockey team, the Lakers were victorious over No. 5/11 Hobart College by a score of 4-2 on Nov. 10.

It was a battle of two nationally ranked teams, with a lot of physical play and not a lot of goals, at least compared to what Oswego State has seen in its last couple games. After a quick turnaround from the previous night against SUNY Canton for the Lakers, and despite two goals in the first period, head coach Ed Gosek felt his team was sluggish, especially in the third period. He said he felt his team just “hung on” in the the regulation period.

Gosek said all four goals, including Jody Sullivan’s goal in the first period, which was his first of the season, were a result of hard work.

“The guys battled hard and found a way to get it done, and that’s a credit to them,” Gosek said. “I think we learned a lot about ourselves, we’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got to improve for next weekend when it comes to league games.”

A key moment in the game for Oswego State came after Mitch Emerson was hit into the boards by Hobart College’s Julien Denicourt, just four minutes after Denicourt would score the Statesmen’s first goal. With Emerson on the ice and eventually skating off to the bench, Denicourt was given a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct. The Lakers were not able to convert on the extended power play that ended at the end of the first period and continued into the beginning of the second. Oswego State went 1-4 on the power play overall, and went 2-2 while on the penalty kill.

Aaron Huffnagle scored the lone power play goal for the Lakers in the first period to propel the team to a 2-0 lead. Oswego State only had five shots on the power play in total, and gave up one shorthanded shot that goaltender David Richer held onto.

“I thought [Hobart’s] PK was very aggressive. We knew that they’d be aggressive. We released the puck but we just didn’t have a lot of support,” Gosek said. “We were in our spots looking to make everything look pretty and clean. When in reality, we needed to outnumber them on loose pucks and then work out from that point.”

Anthony Passero scored in the third period for his second goal of the season, his first coming from the SUNY Canton game on Nov. 9. Emerson also scored the empty net goal with nine seconds remaining in the entire game. Once again, Gosek emphasized the team’s new depth and how it is able to roll out four lines of offense and not rely on only one line.

In general, Gosek said this game will be crucial heading into the week when preparing for league games in the next couple weekends. The Lakers will travel to Buffalo State and SUNY Fredonia for their first back-to-back games both on the road. Buffalo State is 2-2-1 (0-1-1 SUNYAC) while SUNY Fredonia is 3-1-0 (1-1-0).

“It was a playoff-type game. It wasn’t a pretty game,” Gosek said. “We just need to be smarter and make better choices on when we cycle, how we cycle, how we use our defense. A lot of it was really self-inflicted.”

To start the first period, Oswego State took the lead after Sullivan scored 11:11 into the first period, assisted by Josh Nenadal and Joey Scorpio. Sullivan scored from the slot clean over Hobart College’s goaltender Alexander Connal’s shoulder. Huffnagle scored a minute-and-a-half later on the power play, with assists from Travis Broughman and Passero. Broughman now leads the team five points.

Denicourt would score at 14:41 to put the Statesmen on the board and cut the Lakers’ lead in half. Richer was screened on the shot by all four Hobart College players and some Oswego State defensemen as well. The shot was clean into the net and Richer could not see the puck.

“That should be a block or come out in the shooting lanes so that we alter the shot and it’s not clean on net,” Gosek said.

A couple minutes later, Denicourt hit Emerson into the end-boards and resulted in the five-minute major and game misconduct. The Lakers did not convert on the power play at all at the end of the first period or beginning of the second period. Passero would score the only goal in the second period at 18:40, assisted by Derek Brown and Michael Gillespie. Hobart College did have a strong amount of chances throughout the period, but could not find the back of the net.

“The first couple periods, I thought their chances came best off of the line rush where we just got all three forwards caught low and too many odd-man rushes,” Gosek said. “A lot of it was really self-inflicted. It was our own mishandling of pucks, puck decisions, standing around watching.”

Blake Coffey opened up scoring in the third period at 3:05 of the regulation to cut the Lakers’ lead in half once again. The score remained 3-2 for the majority of the period. After the Statesmen pulled Connal late in the period, Emerson found the empty net with nine seconds remaining in the game.

Despite the sluggish start, according to Gosek, the team was able to “find a way to get it done” and come away with the win against the nationally-ranked Statesmen.

“It was after midnight before we got back. We stuck with what we do with the pregame skate, video and preparation,” Gosek said. “They had a lot more jump and beat us to those loose pucks especially in the third period.”

Oswego State (3-0-0, 1-0-0 SUNYAC) will face its first entire road-weekend this coming weekend with games against Buffalo State and SUNY Fredonia. Last season, at this time, the Lakers beat the Bengals 4-3 and beat the Blue Devils 5-3. Both games were at the Marano Camps Center Ice Arena last season.

Gosek said this road trip is one of the harder ones, this one being called the “western swing” and the other one being the “northern swing” when the Lakers travel to Plattsburgh State and SUNY Potsdam. For now, he said he is focused on having a good week of practice before the team hits the road Friday morning.

“I’m not sure what happened in the league tonight, but you’ve got to be prepared and just get better. That’s the bottom line,” Gosek said. “Everything’s not going to go the way it did tonight if we keep like we did.”