The heart of four-straight road games for the No. 4/5 ranked Oswego State men’s ice hockey team brings them to the North Country for two contests against the SUNY Potsdam Bears and the SUNY Plattsburgh Cardinals this weekend.

 The Lakers failed to win a game on this road trip last year but grabbed a single point in a 4-3 overtime loss to SUNY Plattsburgh.

 Head coach Ed Gosek blames not playing a complete game each time out for their lack of success on last year’s North Country trip.

 “It wasn’t that we were playing poor hockey, just we weren’t playing complete hockey,” Gosek said. “We didn’t play a complete 60 [minutes] and we had certain breakdowns and certain players that made individual mistakes that cost us.”

 Heading into this weekend, Gosek is pushing his team to play a simple game. This is still a work in progress, but he has seen flashes of this during certain games this season.  

 The first period against the College at Brockport, where the Lakers went up 2-0, is a prime example.

 “We want to play fast,” Gosek said. “We want to play aggressive. We want quick line changes. We want everyone involved. We just want guys that are hard on their sticks and play gritty and play hard. I thought we did that in the first period [at Brockport] and then it slowly crept away.”

 The game against the Cardinals should prove to be the tougher of the two yet again, even after Buffalo State shocked the Div. III hockey world with a 4-1 victory over the Cardinals on Nov. 11.

Despite this, Gosek currently believes the goalie rotation is working and does not see a reason to change the routine. This could mean that Matt Zawadzki would get the start against the 1-2-1 Bears and the newcomer, David Jacobson, would be between the pipes for the matchup with No. 8/10 ranked Cardinals.

 “If we go [with] the rotation, Zawadzki would play Friday and Jacobson would play Saturday,” Gosek said. “Whether we switch it around, I don’t know. I don’t know if there is a just reason to switch it around. They’re both playing well.”

 On top of the goalie rotation, the constant line changes are something to note, particularly on the third line.Mitchell Herlihey and Andrew Barton have seen three different forwards paired with them over the course of three games. 

This list includes Mitch Emerson, TJ Sneath and Tyson Bruce, and could grow each game until Gosek feels his “ultimate strongest lineup” is in place. Aside from the first line of Kenny Neil, Shawn Hulshof and Alex Botten, the rest of the forward group is open to changes, according to Gosek.

 “We’ve got a lot of forwards that we feel can play,” Gosek said. “We’re trying to give them all an opportunity, and not just one opportunity, at least a couple of looks before we try to form some chemistry with the other lines.”

 After a 4-1 victory over SUNY Cortland last weekend, Oswego State moved up in the rankings and is one of two undefeated and untied teams in Div. III along with Utica College.

The team will try to continue this as they prepare for one of the more talked-about road trips on the schedule.