Geneseo — After falling behind 5-0 to the No. 5/6 SUNY Geneseo Ice Knights, the No. 3 Oswego State Lakers were able crawl back and eventually tie the game with just 3.3 seconds remaining in regulation thanks to Stephen Johnson’s fifth goal of the season.

Devin McDonald started for SUNY Geneseo (12-2-3/6-2-1) and made 46 saves on 51 shots, but was not able to bail out the Ice Knight’s defense with one more save to avoid blowing another lead against Oswego State (14-3-1/9-1-1) this season. On Nov. 5, Oswego State was able to knock off the Ice Knights with another furious attack in the final period.

“We played afraid,” head coach Ed Gosek said post game. “Not afraid of them, afraid of making mistakes. We just were tentative. We were timid in the first, and then finally we just started playing our game and stopped worrying about playing this perfect game. We engaged, we battled and we competed and we slowly gained momentum back. I think it speaks volumes for the character of the team that they’re going to put up a fight every game.”

The Lakers adjusted between periods after allowing three goals in the first and started creating more chances in the second. After killing off the remainder of carry over time from Chris MacMillan’s tripping penalty, Oswego State seemed to get comfortable.

SUNY Geneseo would score two more to widen the margin, but Oswego State’s game was still on the upswing.

“I thought starting about five minutes into the second period, I thought we started to control the play,” Gosek said. “We kept wearing their [defense] down. I thought we did a good job of just getting pucks deep and making simple plays.”

Matt Zawadzki relieved David Jacobson after one period. Jacobson allowed three goals on 10 shots before the senior and all-time leader in shutouts took over. Zawadzki would keep the Lakers alive enough to get back into the game with 18 saves on 20 shots, including two in overtime.

“I don’t fault [Jacobson] on the first and the third [goal],” Gosek said. “He didn’t have any chance. I thought, the second one, he should have had. It’s no different than [the Buffalo State game] where the one that goes five-hole on him there. It’s just you need those saves. The other two I don’t fault him on at all, but change it up to change momentum and try to get something going here.”

Joey Davies was a driving force in the Oswego State comeback. The senior got his team on the board with a power play marker at 13:42 of the second period. He was able to score the Lakers’ second and fourth goals as well to extend his point streak to four games. Davies now has seven goals and six assists in that span, which is huge for the offense after being short two players when both Matt Galati and Mitchell Herlihey left the game and did not return with injuries.

The message going into the final period from inside the dressing room was defense, according to Gosek.

“I know that sounds crazy, but lets take care of our own end,” Gosek said. “They are very good off the rush. If we take care of our end, and we don’t turn pucks over, and don’t force things through the neutral zone, we’ll continue to grind them down. And that’s exactly what happened.”

Chris Raguseo’s point shot found its way home just 24 seconds into the final stanza and gave the Lakers another level. SUNY Geneseo only put up eight shots in the third period, its lowest total of the game. Oswego State was able to create grade-A scoring chances nearly every shift until Johnson was able to tie the game with the extra attacker out.

Raguseo got the puck on the his stick with roughly seven seconds showing on the clock. He found Johnson with a D-to-D pass along the blue line, and Johnson was able to fire a low wrist shot through traffic in front, over the pad of McDonald, tying the game and sending it to overtime.

Nobody found the back of the net in the hectic extra period, securing a single point for both teams.

Kenny Neil tallied three assists in this contest, making him the fourth Laker to record his 100th point this season. The senior captain now sits at 101-career points. He recorded the milestone marker with a secondary assist on Davies’ hat trick goal.

Oswego State will now prepare to face SUNY Cortland on Friday, Jan. 27 for the only Laker game of the weekend. Puck drop at the Marano Campus Center Ice Arena is set for 7 p.m.

SUNY Geneseo Scoring:

Ceglarski 0-3-3, Gordon 2-0-2, Anthoine 1-1-2, Collins 1-1-2, Szmyd 1-0-1, Ferguson 0-1-1, Romano 0-1-1, Bilous 0-1-1

Oswego State Scoring:

Davies 3-1-4, Neil 0-3-3, Raguseo 1-1-2, Johnson 1-1-2, Hulshof 0-2-2, Campbell 0-1-1