The Oswego State women’s ice hockey team is prepared to face the undefeated SUNY Plattsburgh Cardinals for the first time this season.
The Cardinals are coming into the weekend series with a five-game win streak. The Lakers follow with a record of 6-0-0. With both teams showing strong gameplay early in the season, a Laker win has potential to set the stage for the rest of the season.
Lakers head coach Diane Dillon has been preparing the team to come in strong using their unique rookie-to-veteran communication skills to dominate the ice and bring home at least one win for Oswego State.
The Lakers have never defeated the Cardinals, but the team has a strong feeling about this weekend’s match-up.
“I think our team is more ready than we’ve ever been,” forward Olivia Ellis said. “We know they’re going to be a strong opponent so we’ve been working on ways to figure out how to beat them.”
Last season, the Cardinals destroyed their competition with an overall record of 29-1-0 and won their fifth straight NCAA Div. III Championship. This dominance year after year makes them the team to beat each season.
“Overall, we’ve been trying to pick up the intensity and speed at practice,” Ellis said. “We know that they’re going to be fast.”
According to Dillon, one of the Lakers’ biggest strengths going into this weekend series is their speed.
“Speed kills as they say and hockey is a game of speed,” Dillon said. “Speed allows you to do a lot of things and forces your opponent to have to defend.”
Dillon, along with the rest of the team, believes that it’s time for the Lakers to finally take home a win against the Cardinals.
This year they have shown to be closer than ever of achieving just this.
“I think right now we’re in a position where it’s just time,” Dillon said. “They have a couple of prolific goal scorers and kids that can shoot the puck well but so do we.”
As for the Laker lineup, it is possible that senior Ashley Lyman may return to the ice for this weekend after missing the first six games due to a lower body injury.
“We’re trying to see how her week at practice goes,” Dillon said “She’s a power forward with a rocket of a shot.”
Dillon believes it will be beneficial to have Lyman back on the ice because of her strengths in the corners and being able to hold her ground during faceoffs. The decision of whether Lyman will be ready for this game will be made at gametime.
Although the Cardinals seem strong so far this season, they have yet to meet with the freshmen class of the Lakers.
Top scoring freshman Jacquelin White is confident that the Lakers will produce high-quality shots throughout the weekend’s series.
“People said that they were pretty strong and that they’re going to be a good competitive team,” White said. “But I think we can definitely keep up with them.”
The Lakers will head up north this weekend to take on the Cardinals at 3 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday at the historic Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena, trying to make history.
