The No. 2 Oswego State Lakers (14-2-3, 9-1-1) defeated the Morrisville State Mustangs (7-10-5, 5-7-2) in convincing fashion, 5-1, completing a weekend sweep at home.
Already leading 1-0, Oswego State forward Alex Botten scored the second goal with 1:12 left in the first period. The goal would would be all the Lakers needed to complete the victory over the Mustangs, who only scored off a power play opportunity at 7:12 in the second period thanks to Joseph Santino.
Forward Shawn Hulshof lead the Lakers with two of his own goals and two assists. Both goals came on the power play in the third period. Oswego State went 2-5 on the power play, sending 16 shots with the man advantage.
While the Lakers dominated in shots on goal, 53-21, the Mustangs won more faceoffs, 37-29. Oswego State head coach Ed Gosek talked about how the abnormal amount of shots, they average 39 per game, was not because of a change of strategy.
“We really still want to be a puck possession team,” Gosek said. “We don’t want to just throw pucks at the net, if we have guys there OK. Tonight I thought our guys worked hard to get to areas where we could get pucks in the net and any time we’re between the hash marks, tops of the circles and grade A opportunities we want to get pucks in the net and try to get those ugly hard working goals.”
Justin Gilbert was in net for the second night in a row for the Lakers. Gilbert (6-1-2) has a 1.54 goal against average and .933 percent save percentage on the season. He stopped 20 shots against the Mustangs.
Gosek praised Gilbert for his performance.
“Those are tough games, you know last night also, many times you have a lot more shots you’re more into a game, you’re focused, you’re concentrated. I think his ability to stay focused was very good,” Gosek said. “I thought he had a very good night.”
Gilbert credited his teammates to aiding his performance.
“I didn’t have to work too hard for most of the game, there was just that little lapse there in the middle of the game,” Gilbert said. “So, I mean, I give them all the credit for this weekend because I didn’t have to do much.”
Krystian Yorke scored the first goal of the game for the Lakers 4:53 into the first period off a pass from Mike Montagna to Hulshof. That goal was followed by Botten’s ending the first period with the Lakers leading, 2-0.
The second period did not see a goal come until a Morrisville pass came from Jordan Carvalho to Marc-Antoine Chap to Santino. With 8.9 seconds left in the second period, Mike Montagna took a pass from Hulshof, which came from Herlihey, and buried it ending the second period with an Oswego State lead of 3-1.
Despite holding a 3-1 lead, the Lakers did not hold back on the Mustangs in the third period. Taking 19 shots, the lakers buried two at the hands of Hulshof. A combination of Oswego State’s aggressiveness and two penalties by Morrisville lead to the two goals. The first, 11:12 into the period, came off a pass from Botten to Bobby Gerstakis who fed it to Hulshof. With 6.9 seconds left in the game a pass from Andrew Barton to Botten set up Hulshof’s second and final goal of the night.
The Lakers travel next to Brockport Feb. 13 and return to the Marano Campus Center to take on Plattsburgh on Feb. 20.
