OSWEGO, N.Y. – The fourth-seeded Oswego State men’s ice hockey team cruised past No. 5 Brockport 8-0 in the first round of the SUNYAC Championship at the Marano Campus Center Arena on Wednesday night. Oswego advances to face rival and host Plattsburgh, the tournament’s No. 1 seed, at 7 p.m. on Saturday in the semifinal round.
Those looking to secure tickets for Saturday’s semifinal are directed to visit tickets.plattsburgh.edu.
After a scoreless opening period, Oswego caught fire with three second-period tallies. It all started at 3:12 of the middle period as David Ferreira wrapped around the back of the goal and tucked the puck home. Sean Federow dumped the puck behind the net for Ferreira after corralling a TJ Sneath blocked shot. Both Federow and Sneath were credited with assists on the play.
Slightly more than 10 minutes later, Federow was in on another goal, clearing the puck out to Shawn Hulshof from behind the Laker net. Hulshof sped along the near boards into Oswego’s offensive zone and dished to Matt Galati. The junior ripped a shot past the Brockport goaltender to make it 2-0 Lakers with 7:32 to go in the second.
Kenny Neil completed the barrage of goals as he and teammate Mitchell Herlihey spread the Golden Eagle defense. The duo setup in opposite face-off circles with Herlihey controlling the puck on the goalie’s stick-side. Herlihey found Neil’s stick with a laser pass and the forward finished on an essentially empty half of the net due to the Laker spacing.
The cylinders kept on clicking in the final period, as Oswego outdid its middle period total by notching five goals. It started with a Hulshof slapshot from the point off Botten and D’Oliiveira passes. Less than three minutes later, Neil tapped one home off of a saved Herlihey shot. Just 22 seconds passed before the Lakers lit the lamp again, this time Galati pushing the puck off the crease as it sat alone after a Botten attempt was saved. Andrew Barton had one of the prettiest scores of the night, faking the goalie into thinking a pass across the crease was apparent before tucking it under the cross bar. Assistant captain Brandon Adamscapped the night on a 2-on-1 with the assist coming from Ferreira with 57 seconds remaining.
In all, five Lakers had three-point nights: Hulshof (1G, 2A), Herlihey (3A), Neil (2G, 1A), Federow (3A) and Barton (1G, 2A). Also with multiple-point outings were Ferriera (1G, 1A), Botten (2A) and Galati (2G).
Not to be lost in the contest was Matt Zawadzki’s shutout, his fifth of the year. The junior entered the night tied for the most shutouts in Division III and made 20 saves on Wednesday to improve to 8-6-2.
As a team, Oswego outshot Brockport by more than double (48-20), had two more blocked shots (8-6) and were a perfect 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
