Northfield, Vt. – The nation’s No. 1/1-ranked Oswego State men’s ice hockey team dropped just its second game of the season 4-3 in overtime to Williams College at Norwich University’s Northfield Savings Bank Holiday Tournament on Friday afternoon. Oswego goes to 10-2-0 on the year and will face the loser of No. 5 Norwich and Nazareth College at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Williams – now 4-2-2 on the year – will face the winner of the Cadets and Golden Flyers following the consolation game on Saturday.
After falling in a 2-0 hole in the first period, Oswego used the intermission to regroup and came out firing on all-cylinders in the middle period. The Lakers capitalized on two power-play opportunities, starting at 12:14. Junior Mitchell Herlihey put the Lakers on the board on assists from Matt Zawadzki and Chris Raguseo. Zawadzki – the Lakers’ senior goalie – recorded his first career point with the helper.
Just 46 seconds later, Kenny Neil posted an extra-man tally with aid from Shawn Hulshof and Matt Galati. That notch at 13:00 knotted the contest at 2-2 and would remain that way into the final intermission.
Williams collected its third goal of the game early in the final 20 minutes and seemed to be capturing the victory before some late Laker heroics. With two players in the sin bin for the Ephs and less than a minute to play, Oswego elected to pull Zawadzki from between the pipes, creating a 6-on-3 advantage. Galati exploited the situation by scoring the equalizer with 21 seconds to play to force overtime. Senior classmate Stephen Johnson was credited on the goal.
The Ephs ended the game 1:34 into sudden-victory overtime, however, scoring with an extra skater following a Laker penalty for hitting from behind.
Five of the contest’s seven goals came on power-play situations, including all three of Oswego’s tallies.
Zawadzki assumed the loss with 16 saves and four goals allowed. Oswego won 16 more face-offs (37-21) and took 14 more shots on-goal (34-20).
