CORTLAND, N.Y. – The fifth-ranked Oswego State men’s ice hockey team (14-3-0, 8-1-0 SUNYAC) raced out to a 4-0 lead in the first nine minutes and never looked back as it defeated Cortland (6-10-2, 2-6-1 SUNYAC) by the score of 5-2 Friday night.
The Lakers received production from all four lines, while Chris Ayotte (Sr., Cornwall, Ontario) bookended the scoring run in the first period with a pair of goals.
Ayotte was the beneficiary of passes from Chris Muise (Sr., Oakville, Ontario) and Chris Brown (Sr., Centreville, Ontario) just over one minute into the game. Three minutes later, Paul Rodrigues (Sr., Etobicoke, Ontario) netted his 12th goal of the season to make the score, 2-0 in favor of Oswego State, with assists being awarded to Jon Whitelaw (Sr., Huntsville, Ontario) and Luke Moodie (Sr., Oakville, Ontario).
The scoring streak continued when Tyler Leimbrock (Sr., Bolton, Ontario) netted an unassisted goal at the 5:36 mark. Muise and Brown found Ayotte again with 11:17 remaining in the first period, prompting Cortland to pull goalie Lyle Rocker in favor of Geoff Sadjadi.
Matty Davie got Cortland on the board after receiving a pass from Stephen Nardi at 2:17 in the second period for the only goal for the stanza.
Eli Kim-Swallow (So., Toronto, Ontario) pushed the lead back to four goals at 7:03 in the third period when he capitalized on a Matt Singleton (Sr., Whitby, Ontario) assist. The Red Dragons closed out the scoring, though, with 7:44 left on the clock following Greg Ryan’s first goal of the year.
Neither team had many power-play chances, as both ended the game 0-for-2 with an extra skater.
Justin Gilbert (Fr., Ottawa, Ontario) picked up the win after registering 28 saves, including 11 in the third period. Lyle Rocker suffered the loss after making four saves in the first 8:43, while Sadjadi compiled 19 saves, as Cortland ended up out-shooting Oswego State by a slim 30-28 margin.
The Lakers return to the friendly confines of home for their final non-conference game of the year on Saturday when they host Hamilton at 7 p.m.
