The No. 2 Oswego State Lakers men’s hockey team returned to action tonight in front of a crowd of 2,604 at the Marano Campus Center Ice Arena with a thrilling 5-4 overtime win in a conference matchup over the visiting SUNY Potsdam Bears.

SUNY Potsdam goaltender Nate Skidmore kept the Bears close all game, making 30 saves on 35 shots, including more than a few highlight reel stops. David Jacobson, who came in relief of an injured Matt Zawadzki, allowed three goals and made 22 saves.

Oswego State held a 4-1 lead in the final stanza, but costly penalties helped aid the Bears’ comeback efforts on the road late in regulation.

“It was self inflicted for us,” head coach Ed Gosek said post game. “You’re in control, you’re up 4-1 and no reason to take the penalties that we do, and you allow them to creep back in.”

The Lakers started tonight’s game in a similar fashion to last weekend’s victory over SUNY Cortland, scoring a couple quick goals right out of the gate.

Just 24 seconds after puck drop, freshman Jody Sullivan found the back of the net for his fifth of the season, sending a quick wrist shot past SUNY Potsdam goaltender Nate Skidmore off a crisp centering pass from defenseman Stephen Johnson to give Oswego an early 1-0 lead.

Less than three minutes later, another freshman, Joey Scorpio joined the scoring action. Picking up the puck in the high slot off the stick of Stephen Johnson, after he was able to keep the puck in the zone, Scorpio buried a heavy shot past Skidmore to add another goal that gave the Lakers a 2-0 lead just 3:05 into the game.

“Right from the start, you can kind of tell that we were controlling the pace,” Scorpio said. “We were controlling the game, and then I think we kind of just lost it. We were worried too much about offense and kind of just skipping out on the process of working hard to get our opportunities.”

Coming out fast seems to be becoming a habit for the Lakers, but what comes next may prove to be the Lakers’ achilles heel.

Just a few minutes later, Oswego State would suffer a setback on a Bryce Ferrell goal to put the Bears within one. The worst damage, however, was an injury to Lakers goaltender Matt Zawadzki, who suffered a lower-body injury. Chris Waterstreet began to break the puck out, but was checked by Alex Goodhue and Ferrell was able to finish after the puck squirted to him in the low slot.

“We came out flying, and then we slowed down.” forward Mitch Herlihey said.

“For the last few games, I don’t want to say we’ve been cheating the game, but you have to compete and do the little things.” Gosek said.

From this point forward, the mood of the game completely changed, with both teams beginning to favor a chippy playing style.

Lakers defensemen Sean Federow woke up the crowd with some thundering hits in the middle of the frame, and it continued with Chris Waterstreet and Goodhue sitting with minor penalties of tripping and holding, respectively.

Waterstreet also took an elbowing penalty with just over two minutes remaining, and the Lakers were able to weather the storm and finish the period with a 2-1 lead.

After a slow start to the second period, the Lakers were able to net an impressive goal with an Andrew Barton wrister past Skidmore. Kenny Neil started with the puck on the side boards, sent it behind the net to Herlihey, who passed it right on the tape of Andrew Barton, who extended the Laker lead to 3-1.

Later in the period, Potsdam forward Vinny Caligiuri took a seat for roughing, and the Lakers power play came out looking to cash on their first power play chance. Oswego State forward Matt Galati retrieved the puck at the bottom of the left circle and fired an absolute laser of a one-timer toward the net, but Skidmore made a miraculous pad stop at the last second to keep the score at 3-1.

The Lakers were back a man up after a Kyle Thacker trip on Herlihey with 4:30 remaining in the second frame, but this power play chance was less productive. The Lakers were unable to rattle off any shots, even though they dominated the offensive zone for the majority of the time they were a man up.

The Lakers ramped up their intensity quite a bit in the second period, outshooting the Bears 12-6, but only had Barton’s tally to show for it.

Early in the third period, Kenny Neil led an Oswego State breakout, and found a streaking Herlihey coming in from behind Bears defenseman Nick Casacci. It was a great chance, but Herlihey found the blocker of Skidmore.

With exactly 15:00 remaining, Neil continued his incredible passing with a centering feed from the corner to the far side of the crease, where he found Shawn Hulshof with a wide-open net to increase the Oswego State lead to 4-1.

The scrappy nature of the game continued as the third period rolled on, with Joey Davies and Nick Keck going at it after the whistle, resulting in Davies sitting two minutes with a roughing minor.

This led to the late comeback from the Bears. Sean Kacerosky scored his second of the season to bring SUNY Potsdam within two at the 9:31 mark of the third period.

The costly penalties from Oswego State continued, with Joey Rutkowski hitting Anthony Merante along the Bears’ bench. This resulted in a five minute penalty and a game misconduct for Rutkowski.

This major penalty ultimately ended up costing the Lakers. Early into the penalty, Jake Butler received a centering feed in front of the net and sent it past Jacobson to make it 4-3. Later into the penalty, Bryce Ferrell flew down the middle of the ice and caught a pass right in front to knot the game at 4.

With 2:34 remaining, Trevor Dennis of Potsdam took a penalty, and it opened up a golden chance for the Lakers to end the game in regulation. Even with a major flurry of shots on net, the Lakers’ power play proved to be fruitless.

The power play ended, and the two teams marched forward into overtime deadlocked at four goals apiece.

Just 1:39 into the overtime period, Herlihey received the puck on the goal line and walked a few defenders with a beautiful move, leading to a point blank chance which he buried on the backhand over the glove of Skidmore to clinch a 5-4 victory.

“I think Kenny [Neil] passed me the puck, then I got hit in the face, and then I almost fell down,” Herlihey said.  “Then I think they thought I was falling down. I blacked out.”

The Lakers managed to win another game tonight through adversity to improve to 16-3-1/11-1-1. They move on to tomorrow’s rivalry showdown with the SUNY Plattsburgh Cardinals in the Marano Campus Center Ice Arena at 7:00 p.m. to cap off Whiteout Weekend.