OSWEGO, N.Y. – A pair of late first- and second-period goals provided the separation the No. 4/6 Oswego State men’s ice hockey team (16-3-0, 9-1-0 SUNYAC) needed before finishing strong in a 5-1 win over Brockport (4-13-2, 3-7-1) Friday night at the Campus Center Ice Arena.
Chris Muise (Sr., Oakville, Ontario) paced the offense with three points on a goal and two assists, while Zach Josepher (Sr., Wantagh, N.Y.) contributed a pair of helpers.
In a back-and-forth first period, the Golden Eagles outshot the Lakers by a margin of 12-7, but the seventh Oswego State shot produced the lone goal of the frame. At the end of a long shift, Chris Muise grinded out a puck in the corner to David Titanic (Jr., Markham, Ontario) near the bottom of the right faceoff circle. Titanic looked across the rink as if to pass, while taking a couple strides towards Brockport goalie Jared Lockhurst. Titanic then lifted his wrist shot under the crossbar and deep enough into the goal to pop up Lockhurst’s water bottle. The goal came with 32.6 seconds remaining in the first period to give Oswego State a 1-0 lead at intermission.
The Lakers came out more aggressively in the second period, but Brockport had the first quality scoring opportunity on the stanza when the Golden Eagles had a 3-on-1 rush. Oswego State goalie Andrew Hare(Burlington, Ontario) stopped the initial shot and turned around to cover the puck before Brockport was able tap it in for the goal.
As the period worn on, Chris Carr (So., Burlington, Ontario) capitalized on a big rebound surrendered by Lockhurst to double the Laker lead. The play was set up when Kyle Badham (Jr., Oakville, Ontario) fed Jesse McConney (Sr., Barrie, Ontario) at the point for a slap shot. Lockhurst made the initial save, but Carr got his stick on the rebound as he was crashing the weak side for his fifth goal of the year at 17:47.
In the early stages of the third period, the home team went ahead 3-0 following Chris Ayotte‘s (Sr., Cornwall, Ontario) 13th goal of the season. Denton King (Fr., Pense, Saskatchewan) stepped up at the blue line and played the puck high off the glass to Muise, who was waiting behind the line. Muise sent a pass in front of the net where a Brockport defenseman was unable to corral it, rolling onto Ayotte’s stick for the top shelf goal at 4:59.
The Golden Eagles ended the shutout bid when Luke Colavecchia fed Kody Valsanen along the near boards at neutral ice while Brockport was killing off a tripping penalty. Colavecchia took a slap shot that drifted over Hare’s glove for a short-handed goal to cut the deficit to two goals.
However, Oswego State made the Golden Eagles pay for a major penalty in the final four minutes of the game by scoring a pair of goals to snap a 0-for-21 drought on the power play. Luke Moodie (Sr., Oakville, Ontario) buried a rebound left in front following a series of shots from Zach Josepher and Jon Whitelaw (Sr., Huntsville, Ontario) at 17:55. Muise ended the night with his fifth goal after Lockhurst turned aside shots from Taylor Farris (Sr., Oakville, Ontario) and Josepher.
Andrew Hare picked up his 12th win of the season after stopping 20 shots, including 12 in the first period, while Jared Lockhurst compiled 22 saves in the loss.
The Lakers square off against Geneseo, which holds a half-game lead over Oswego State in the conference standings with a SUNYAC mark of 9-1-1, on Saturday at 7 p.m.
