The Oswego State Lakers early-season struggles continued Friday night at the Utica Memorial Auditorium as they fell to St. Thomas 3-2 in what was their fourth loss of the season. St. Thomas improved to 5-2-2 on the season and the Lakers loss put them under .500 after they won back-to-back games against SUNY Morrisville last weekend just to get back to .500.
The game’s decisive goal came 12:38 into the third period as Ben Vikich got the puck from Bobby Murphy on a Laker turnover in their own zone. Oswego captain Chris Raguseo went for the cross-ice pass between the face off circle and the blue line, but could not complete it.
Oswego head coach Ed Gosek said that mental lapses from his defense in their own zone is the biggest difference right now in games and is holding the team back.
“It’s gotta stop,” Gosek said. “We’ve got guys that know better.”
A bright spot for the team recently has been junior forward Andrew Barton, who scored in the 2nd period. Barton’s power play goal with his fourth in the last three games and his fifth of the season, good enough for the team lead. Barton found the back of the net after a pair of smooth, successful passes from Chris Raguseo and Sean Federow, which tied the game up at 1-1.
The Lakers fell behind once again, but Kenny Neil would tie the game up with a goal 16:57 into the second. Neil took a shot right in front the goal, but St. Thomas goalie Joe Morris blocked it with his pad. However, Neil got the rebound immediately and beat Morris’ glove side to tie the game up at 2-2 heading into the third.
Despite the Lakers second period behind strong offensively, those were the only goals scored all game for the team. Gosek thought that the offense started off very poor and was not able to create any real momentum to start the game, causing them to fall behind.
“I thought our shot selection in the first period was poor,” Gosek said. “I thought we were just throwing pucks at the net rather than working in and grinding it out.”
Although when the Lakers had good chances in front of the net, they did not capitalize as they would have hoped to.
“I thought there were a few [pucks] he [Joe Morris] picked up at the last minute where I thought we had good traffic,” Gosek said. He also believed that they lacked physicality on the defensive end in front of the net as well.
“I thought they blocked a lot of shots, our guys weren’t willing to block shots,” he said. “I thought they were grittier from that standpoint. We’re continuing to beat ourselves. They’re a good team, they’re opportunistic. Against good teams, when you make mistakes like that, they [pucks] end up at the back of your net.
Adrian Ignagni got his third consecutive start of the season, but suffered his first loss of the season.
“The second goal I thought he should have had, but he was fine,” Gosek said.
Despite Ignagni being 2-1 on the season, Gosek said that there will be a switch in who is between the pipes tomorrow and he simply put it, “We aren’t winning.”
Whether that goalie will be Matt Zawadzki who was the expected starter coming into the season but has sat the last few games, or senior Justin Gilbert who has only played a couple of periods this year, there will be someone knew in the goal for the Lakers tomorrow, hoping to create a momentum shift for the team.
That goalie will face off against St. John’s University in the second game of the Raddison Thanksgiving Showcase, who plays Utica College Friday night, who are 2-4-2 on the season. Puck drop will be at 4 p.m. again in the Utica Memorial Auditorium.
