OSWEGO, N.Y. – The Oswego State women’s hockey team defeated Cortland 2-1 in the ECAC West quarterfinal Saturday afternoon at the Marano Campus Center Arena. With the win, the Lakers have improved to 19-6-1 on the season and will advance to the ECAC West semifinals for the second-straight year.
Offensive special teams were the key to the victory tonight, as Oswego scored both of its goals on the power-play. The first goal came from Rachel Lenard, as she was able to slip the puck in during a scramble in the crease. The play started with a blue line slapper from Alli Ullrich that was tipped past the goaltender by Andrea Noss. The puck lay behind Cortland’s goalie and was batted by Olivia Ellis over to Lenard for the easy put-away.
After a scoreless second period, Oswego drew a penalty right at the tail end of the stanza to give the Lakers a player advantage to start the third. The squad took advantage, scoring just 31 seconds into the final 20. It was a tic-tac-toe play, as Kendall Appelbaum passed to Noss in the high slot, who in turn found Lenard in the low slot. With the goalie out of position, Lenard was able to slide the puck right into the net for her second of the day.
Bridget Smith was near-impenetrable in net for the Lakers, stopping 28 Red Dragon shots and allowing only a single goal.
Women’s ice hockey will now go on to play No. 2 Plattsburgh in the semifinals at 7 p.m. on Saturday at top-seeded Elmira’s home ice.
