On a rare Tuesday night affair the Oswego State Lakers suffered yet another loss in a game they needed to win after giving up two unanswered goals to lose 3-1. The Geneseo Knights were ranked No. 11 this week and could improve as they moved to 12-3-3 on the year. The Lakers ended their two game win streak to drop to 9-7-2.

After a good first period start a late Geneseo Knights goal could have crippled the Lakers hopes in this game. Oswego State apparently doesn’t listen to traditional hockey rules and came out of the gate fast, scoring just 41 seconds into the middle stanza as Sean Federow scored his first goal of the year.

“I thought we were a little individualistic in the first period and some guys tried to do too much,” Head Coach Ed Gosek said. “I thought we got back to basics in the second period.”

Besides the early second period goal the Lakers couldn’t bury anything else. Offensive chances were generated and the power play got one chance to work as well but the Lakers failed to convert despite being the better of the two teams at times during the middle frame.

“The first twelve to fourteen minutes of the second period I thought we played very well and had nothing to show for it,” Gosek said. “We rang one off the post, we would get opportunities and they had good opportunities too but again, their goalie was better than ours.”

Matt Zawadzki didn’t play his best game tonight but overall this year he has put up respectable numbers. Tonight he stopped 22 shots and made a couple of big saves but was the victim of bad puck management by Oswego State and he couldn’t bail the Lakers out on a turnover chance and a puck battle in front. Oswego State also didn’t give their net minder that much help.

“I thought he made some good saves but again their goalie was very good,” Gosek said. “I’m not faulting Zawadzki we scored one goal, it’s not enough.”

“They are a good team but I thought we beat ourselves,” Gosek said. “Our puck management, and again, tying up in and around the net I thought was the difference in the game.”

The Knights buried the Lakers with two unanswered goals. Trevor Hills scored his second of the night as he found a loose puck in front and then David Ripple scored a power play marker to cap off the scoring for the night. Oswego State had more opportunities late to score but just couldn’t beat Devin McDonald even with Matt Zawadzki pulled and the extra attacker on.

“You get the goalie out, we had a couple looks or one good look off of it,” Gosek said. “Down the stretch I thought they did a good job of keeping us to the outside, getting five guys in front, blocking shots and not letting us get anything clean in the slot area. When you’re up by two goals and you can pack it in like that the you’re going to have success when your goalie is playing that well.”

Oswego State had two real good chances to tie it late but again, failed to do so. They rang one off the post and David Ferreira got a penalty shot chance but couldn’t capitalize as he lost the puck trying to fake back to the backhand.

“We’ll have to see if we had more grade a’s [opportunities] than them or whether they had than us,” Gosek said. “We had opportunities.”

Bad puck management and not being able to capitalize were two key factors in this Laker defeat. They played well enough at times and did a lot of the small things right but just could not find a way to defeat the Knights tonight.

My Three Stars

3- Pat Condon

The defenseman tallied an assist and a shot on goal tonight. Condon’s assist came on the power play but he also played other big minutes tonight. He finished with a +1 rating and was able to shut down the top lines of the Lakers. Condon now has ten assists on the year for a total of 11 points.

2- David Ripple

Ripple added to his point total tonight with a big insurance marker late in the game. His power play goal was his sixth on the year. The senior registered a team high six shots on the night and played a solid game on the other side of the puck doing all the little things right.

1- Trevor Hills

Hills scored two goals tonight, including the game winner. The second line winger came up big for his team yet again. he found a loose puck in front that he buried but he also made the Lakers pay for poor puck management as he scored directly off an Oswego State turnover to put the Knights up 1-0 late in the first period. Hills is now second on the team in points.

Injury Report

Mitch Herlihey left the game after he limped off the ice directly after blocking a shot around his skate. I talked with Coach Ed Gosek and the team doctor after the game. The sophomore will be getting an x-ray tomorrow and right now it doesn’t appear to be broken. He was seen on crutches with ice around his left foot during the game, no walking boot so that is a good sign. It’s most likely a deep bone bruise and his status for this weekend will be better known tomorrow.

The Real Deal

Kenny Neil didn’t register a point tonight but came up big in some early Laker penalty kills. He blocked numerous shots and got in the passing lanes to help disrupt Geneseo’s power play unit. Neil is my pick for team MVP and he proved yet again how good he is on both sides of the puck.

Looking Ahead

With two more games played than the top three teams in the SUNYAC and now tied for third place this upcoming weekend is even bigger for the Lakers. Having Plattsburgh, Potsdam and Geneseo all with two games in hand it could be rough for Oswego State real soon. An at large bid to the NCAA tournament is all but out of reach for the Lakers at this point so they will need to try to get the best possible seed in the SUNYAC tournament and hope to get hot at the right time.

The Lakers take on SUNY Cortland this Friday at 7 p.m. at the Marano Campus Center Ice Arena. The last time these two faced Oswego State walked away without two points as they lost 4-2.