It took a little time, but the Oswego State men’s ice hockey team found an offensive spark over the final 40 minutes to defeat SUNY Geneseo, 4-1, on Friday night at the Ira S. Wilson Ice Arena to keep its slim conference lead over SUNY Plattsburgh.
The Ice Knights (10-10-0 overall, 4-7-0 SUNYAC) struck first before the Lakers responded with four unanswered goals highlighted by senior defenseman and assistant captain Jared Anderson’s first collegiate goal. Anderson, who missed the majority of his sophomore season to injury and a few games this season, tallied his first point since recording an assist against Geneseo on Feb. 14, 2009.
Geneseo’s Zach Martin registered the Ice Knights’ only goal of the game at 10:34 of the first period on a rebound in front of the net, beating Oswego State junior goaltender Andrew Hare. Jonathan Redlick fired a shot on net that was blocked aside by Hare, but Martin was all alone in front for the easy tap-in goal to give the Ice Knights the one-goal lead at the end of the first period.
Junior forward Chris Brown got the Lakers on the scoreboard and tied the game at one at 14:19 of the second period with assists going to junior defenseman Jesse McConney and freshman forward Chris Carr. Brown’s goal was his sixth goal of the season.
The Ice Knights have been killed by their special teams units, as both their penalty kill and power play have been anemic all season. Tonight was no exception as Geneseo found themselves on the wrong end of a 5-on-3 after a tripping penalty to Jimmy Powers and a slashing penalty to Jake Yard. Just four seconds after going on the two-man advantage, junior forward Chris Ayotte received the puck off a face off win by McConney and blasted a wrist shot past Geneseo goaltender Cory Gershon.
Leading 2-1 after two periods, Oswego State (15-2-2 overall, 8-0-2 SUNYAC) gave itself a two-goal advantage at 3:04 of the third period on a goal by junior forward Tyler Leimbrock, his ninth of the season. Junior forward Chris Muise and senior forward Ian Boots were credited with the assist.
After a hard-fought first period, the Ice Knights appeared to have nothing left for the final two periods, as their offensive presence was transparent. Geneseo had four shots in the second period and seven shots in the third period. The power play unit was non existent, finishing 0-for-5 with the man advantage.
Anderson’s first collegiate goal at 17:32 of the third period put the exclamation mark on the victory, as the Laker bench poured onto the ice to congratulate Anderson’s achievement. Junior forward Matt Singleton was credited with the assist on the play.
The high scoring line of junior forwards Luke Moodie, Jon Whitelaw and Paul Rodrigues were shutout against the Ice Knights. Friday’s first line of Boots, Leimbrock and Muise led all lines in scoring with three points, as all three tallied a point.
Hare finished the game with 19 saves on 20 shots faced for the Lakers, while Gershon made 21 saves on 25 shots faced for Geneseo.
The Lakers travel to The College at Brockport on Saturday, Jan. 27, to face off against the Golden Eagles at Tuttle North Ice Arena in Brockport, N.Y. Fans can listen to the game on 88.9 FM WNYO or follow the live stats on the Brockport athletics website.
