After three games, two against Buffalo State University, the Oswego State men’s hockey team emerged bruised but victorious from the first round of the SUNYAC playoffs.While the scores put up on the board tell tales of games that were out of reach within minutes, the realities were not so simple. 

The Lakers first game versus the SUNY Fredonia Blue Devils on Friday, Feb. 20, ended with a Michael Manzi shutout and saw the goalie on the other side emerge with nearly a .900 on the night. The following evening featuring the Buffalo State Bengals had 18 more minutes in penalties than minutes in regulation. The Wednesday night rematch on Feb. 25, while less overtly aggressive, was nonetheless a tie game for the length of the first period and not counting power play goals, would have finished a measly 2-1 in Oswego’s favor. The sheets post-game show 4-0, 6-1 and 5-1 respectively, all easy wins for the Lakers. But the product shown on the ice was no less entertaining than the closest of games. 

Fredonia came into their contest with Oswego with one objective: make this win hard for the Lakers. For over half the game, it was a two-goal contest. Yes, Oswego scored two goals in the first five minutes, but it took them until halfway through period three for goal number three. By all accounts, Blue Devils goaltender Charles-Anthony Barbeau, hailing from the small town of Saint-Rémi, south of Montréal, was doing as instructed between the pipes. Three penalties of three were killed off by the Blue Devils, such perfection Buffalo State could have only dreamed of. But subsequent goals from Aidan Cooper and Colin Vassallo vanquished the Devils and their efforts with them. Wednesday night the Blue Devils fought valiantly against Hobart College, holding them to a mere three goals.

The orange Buffalo State came into yellow and green Oswego seeing red, at the first game. A team that had drawn more penalties from their opponents than they had committed themselves, it was clear that physicality, the aggressive, charging kind, was the order of the day. At timestamp 9:44 of the second period, 36 minutes of penalties were recorded. The single, 5-foot-10 Michael Urgo was staring down three Bengals at one point, all backing him into a corner. But it was the Lakers that got the short end of the stick. Three men were sent to the box with two-minute roughing minors and ten-minute misconducts; Brett Fudger and Cam Symons of the Lakers and the lone Foster Nichol of the Bengals. The six goals on the board were not nearly as entertaining to the Laker faithful as the shoving matches after nearly every other whistle. Bad blood was developed in this game and all expected it to pour over into their rematch with the Bengals on Wednesday. 

Surprisingly, for the most part anyway, it did not. The majority of the game was strictly business, save for a near 5v5 brawl with five minutes remaining. Shockingly, one-sixth of the penalty minutes were handed out for this incident compared to the similar incident just a game earlier. Buffalo tried to draw physicality and penalties from the Lakers, but the tables had turned and the Bengals’ penalties were their fatal flaw. The Lakers went 4-for-6 on power plays Saturday night and 3-for-6 Wednesday. Seven of their 11 total goals were power play goals. Buffalo State ended their season with a whimper, and returned to the Queen City empty handed once more. 

The SUNYAC tournament’s first round gave up many close and nail-biting games. Of course the aforementioned game between Fredonia and Hobart did not go Fredonia’s way. The No. 4 SUNY Cortland Red Dragons played the No. 5 SUNY Canton Kangaroos, a game that took until halfway through the third for the first goal, one of only two, both for the Dragons. The final barnstorming game came from No. 3 Skidmore College and No. 6 Plattsburgh State, in which a late-game rally for the Cardinals came up short. Oswego moves on to play Skidmore this Saturday, Feb. 28, while Cortland has the task of defeating the Hobart Statesmen.