Oswego State made easy work of the Elmira College Soaring Eagles tonight in a 7-1 blowout. The Marano Campus Center Ice Arena was rocking again tonight and was near max capacity for the Lakers’ home opener.

Scoring all throughout the lineup, coming from seven different goal scorers, gave the Lakers the boost they needed to be able knock off the Soaring Eagles. Elmira College had 11 freshmen in their lineup tonight and even though the Lakers have more than a handful of newcomers as well, Oswego State was the better team for a full 60 minutes.

“Obviously it’s pleasing when you have scoring by committee and not relying on one line or one person,” head coach Ed Gosek said. “I’m hoping that that’s the way the season will be. That we don’t have to rely on one line or one person, as we had to the last couple of years.”

Penalties were an issue for both teams yet again. The Lakers took eight penalties tonight for the second consecutive game, but the penalty killers were pretty solid. The need to be more responsible and stay out of the box goes without saying.

“If you want to be successful, you have to be one of the least penalized teams in the league,” Gosek said. “You can’t rely on your goalie and your penalty killing unit to be as good as we’ve been the last two games.”

Gosek did mention after this that they have gotten some lucky bounces when they’re a man down and have had good goaltending. However, that is no reason to get complacent.

The Lakers have played a junior level club filled with “all-stars” and a team that will struggle all season to compete in the ECAC West. That should be noted. When teams like SUNY Genseo and SUNY Plattsburgh come to town, this could be an entirely different story for the Lakers.

Kenny Neil impressed again and tallied a shorthanded marker to open the scoring at 11:59 of the first period. Neil created a turnover along the boards and got the puck into the neutral zone. Botten was open on the near side and the two went in 2-on-1. Botten dished a perfect pass over to Neil and he easily buried one on Sal Magliocco. The senior goaltender was left out to dry by his defense more than a few times tonight.

The Lakers were able to control the neutral zone, causing turnovers and catching the Elmira defense with their momentum going the other way. The second Laker goal was a result of just this. Shawn Hulshof picked up a puck in the neutral zone, fed Neil and then broke in. Neil found Alex Botten on the far side and he beat a sprawling Magliocco to give the Lakers a 2-0 lead at 13:59 mark of the first. Just one moment of the top line’s brilliant game all night long.

Gosek acknowledged postgame that the work the Lakers did in practice this week in the neutral zone was a big improvement from the exhibition game.

“We had a few breakdowns, but they’re starting to get it,” Gosek said. “They’re starting to understand and I think the better we can be in that area, the more opportunities that we’ll create.”

Elmira was outplayed for pretty much the entire second half of the first period. The Soaring Eagles came out in the second and tried to be physical to get Oswego State off their game but failed to do so.

“I think we responded well,” Matt Galati said. “I think we pushed the pace. When they pushed, we pushed back and we had our legs tonight.”

Oswego State scored two more in the middle frame, despite the adjustments from Elmira during the first intermission. Jody Sullivan and Aaron Huffnagle scored their first as a Laker tonight.

The Laker power play got going late. Three third period markers came on the man advantage. For the majority of the night, both units were controlling the puck, moving it around and getting some looks they wanted, but the Soaring Eagles did a solid job, for the most part, of getting in shooting lanes and collapsing around their own net.

“It felt good to get the first one out of the way and a couple there,” Galati said. “We were moving more and we’re opening up a little more becuase we’re moving more. So, it’s nice to see and fun to be a part of.”

Goals from Galati and Ferreira on the man advantage pushed the Laker lead to 6-0 before the 10 minute mark of the final stanza. Things progressively got chippier throughout this game and at the 13:21 mark Joey Davies and Elmira’s captain Michael Martin got into after Davies was driven into Magliocco by his own defenseman, Spencer Carter.

“Little rage went through me, but luckily I didn’t get kicked out and we got a power play off it,” Davies said.

Elmira College broke Matt Zawadzki’s bid for a record-setting shutout late in the third. He is one away from holding the Oswego State record for career shutouts.

Tyler Theodoulou pressured Zawadzki behind the net, got possession and before the senior net minder could get back in position, Matthew Cuce was taking a snap shot that Zawadzki couldn’t stop. Another solid performance from the Lakers No.1 guy in his first win of the season, but the coaching staff still sees room for improvement.

“I’d like to see him a little more under control after the initial save in those areas,” Gosek said. “But again, pretty hard to fault him on anything tonight.”

Andrew Barton added insult to injury for the third and final power play tally at 19:20 to push their lead back to six goals.

Coach Gosek and Co. will head to Elmira on Saturday to take on the Soaring Eagles again. There are not too many things the Lakers can improve upon, but that Elmira lineup has to be hungry for revenge and may give the Lakers a little trouble in the early going.

“They got their feet wet tonight the same way we did last Saturday night,” Gosek said. “They’re a young team. They’ll come out with some fire tomorrow tonight, there’s no doubt in our minds. They’re at home and they have something to prove, as they should. It will be a good test for us on the road, first weekend of back-to-back games.”

Faceoff is set for 7 p.m. tomorrow night for the second leg of the home-and-home series with these two non-conference teams.