The No. 8 Oswego Lakers women’s ice hockey team fell by a score of 2-1 against ECAC West rival Buffalo State in a goaltenders duel between Oswego’s Mariah Madrigal and Buffalo State’s Justine Silva.

The Bengals improved to 16-5-1 overall (11-4 ECAC West). The Lakers fell to 15-6-1 (9-5-1 ECAC West). The Bengals now lead the Lakers by three points in the conference standings, with 22, compared to the Lakers 19.

In their first meeting since last year’s 5-0 playoff game won by the Lakers, there were multiple stories heading into this game that played a huge hand in the events of this afternoon’s tilt.

With revenge in mind for the Bengals, they were able to withstand early attacks from the Lakers offense and implement their own pace of the game that would last the entire first period. The Bengals were able to control possession for most of the game and keep the Lakers at bay.

Buffalo State junior forward Rachel Lenard, a transfer from Oswego State, was the star of today’s game. She scored both Bengals goals today, including the GWG with 4:49 remaining in third period.

“She’s a very talented young lady,” Coach Diane Dillon of Oswego State said. “You got to give it to her.”

Lenard started the scoring in today’s game by marking the only tally of the first period. After a miscue between Kendall Applebaum and Madrigal, Lenard was able to pick up an open puck and sneak it by her former teammate to put the Bengals up 1-0 at 7:55 of the first period.

The very even first period ended with a 7-6 Lakers advantage in shots, but a 1-0 Bengals lead. Both teams very obviously had trouble getting their offensive games going early, and the miscue between Madrigal and Applebaum proved to be the only difference.

“She [Madrigal] played well. She faced 28 shots in total, you love when your goaltender to come up with a big save when you need it.” Dillon said. “She was square to the puck, she’s playing fine.”

“You need to move to the puck well to break down a defense like that, and if you do that, you can burn her [Silva].” Dillon said.

At 7:14 of the second period, while on the power play, Lakers leading scorer Olivia Ellis picked the top left corner past the blocker of Silva to tie the game at 1 for her eleventh goal of the season.

“You need to be in a high percentage spot to score goals on the power play.” Assistant coach Greg Haney said on Ellis’ goal.

Outside of that goal, the remainder of the period was dominated by great penalty killing and solid goal-tending from Madrigal and Silva. Shots were even at 17 apiece and the score was tied 1-1 at the end of two frames.

In the third period, it was a see-saw of momentum between the Lakers and Bengals. During the beginning of the period, Buffalo State was able to overpower Oswego State with sustained offensive pressure, but Madrigal had an answer for every Bengals chance. Just after the ten minute mark, the Lakers completely flipped the script.

The Lakers began to control the pace of the game within the last ten minutes, dominating the offensive zone and consistently firing shots on Silva. This trend continued until penalties began to change the game.

Alli Ullrich was called for a rough, and just 39 seconds later, Christine Harris was sent to the box as well. While playing at 4-on-4, Lenard capitalized again.

With the Bengals controlling the puck in the offensive zone, Lenard was able to tuck the puck far side under the crossbar for her second goal of the game that would ultimately decide the result.

“We put ourselves in a position where we have to win tomorrow. We have to win.” Dillon said. “We need to compete to give ourselves a chance to get some momentum in these final weeks. We put ourselves in a must-win position. This is playoff hockey now.” Dillon said.

The teams return to the ice tomorrow in Marano Campus Center at 3 p.m. to finish out Pink the Rink weekend.