The SUNYAC regular season title now belongs to the No. 2/3 Oswego State men’s hockey team. After a 2-1 victory over the SUNY Fredonia Blue Devils (13-9-2/7-7-1) on Friday night, Oswego State has now won three-straight games and is 19-4-1/12-2-1 heading into the season finale against No. 13 Buffalo State.

Two goals in the first 40 minutes from Oswego State and 19 saves from David Jacobson was enough to help the Lakers hold on after SUNY Fredonia was able to cut the Lakers’ lead in half before the midway mark of the final stanza.

Chris Waterstreet’s sixth goal of the season opened the scoring at 7:26 of the first period. He was able to bat a rebound past SUNY Fredonia netminder Eric Bogart after Stephen Johnson put a puck on net for his first of two helpers on the night. Aaron Huffnagle was given the secondary assist on the game’s first goal as well.

“It was a great look off on the first [goal] where [Johnson] freezes the goalie and is looking back door,” head coach Ed Gosek said post game.

SUNY Fredonia nearly tied the game at one all in the second period when Jimmy Morgan found Samuel Wilbur streaking to the top of the crease. Wilbur could not handle the centering pass, letting an almost sure goal slip away.

The Lakers would then take advantage of the missed opportunity with a goal at the other end on the next rush up ice. Just 27 seconds after Wilbur’s scoring chance was put wide, Oswego State struck.

Andrew Barton answered with his 10th goal of the season after he drove to the net and put home a juicy rebound at 7:48 of the second period. Johnson and Mitchell Herlihey’s odd-man break chance pulled Bogart out of position after he was able to rob Johnson sliding to the near post.

Oswego State put up 16 shots in the second period, five more than the first period total, but were unable to tack on another goal in the middle frame to further widen the lead.

“We’re up 2-0, we had some great looks to make it 3-0, and then they gotta start taking some chances,” Gosek said. “That’s really the difference between it staying a tight game and being able to open it up a little bit.”

SUNY Fredonia was finally able to cut into the Lakers’ lead when Wilbur and Jacob Haynes converted on an odd-man break at 7:54 of the third period. Morgan set up Haynes through the offensive zone, and Haynes pulled off a successful spin-o-rama to Jacobson’s left to set up the pass to Wilbur, who made it a 2-1 game with 12:06 to play.

Waterstreet followed this up with a interference minor penalty on the next shift, giving the Blue Devils’ power play its second chance of the night to convert.

Oswego State was able to improve 92-109 while a man down tonight after killing off Waterstreet’s penalty.

The Blue Devils took a timeout with 48.2 seconds remaining and pulled Bogart for the extra attacker. Gosek put out Herlihey, Barton, Kenny Neil, Johnson and Chris Raguseo to kill off the dying seconds after the timeout. The Lakers did not allow a shot in the following sequence to hold on and become the SUNYAC hockey regular season champions.

“I think coming into the season we all had something to prove, being our last year for a lot of us here” Barton said. “That’s a good accomplishment for us, but it doesn’t mean anything unless we take care of business in the playoffs. So, that’s our next focus after tomorrow night, obviously.”

Oswego State will take on the Buffalo State Bengals when they come to town Saturday night. Faceoff is set for 7 p.m. at the Marano Campus Center Ice Arena. There will be a ceremony following the conclusion of the game to honor the 13 seniors, including Adrian Ignagni.