Only a single point separates the No. 2/3 men’s ice hockey team from clinching the top seed in the SUNYAC, with a first-round bye already locked up. This weekend will bring another set of challenges Oswego State’s way with a streaking SUNY Fredonia team coming to town Friday, followed by the stingy defense of the Buffalo State Bengals Saturday.

Buffalo State has secured a postseason bid, but has been experiencing a rough patch as of late with two loses in its last three. This span includes an 8-2 loss to Morrisville State and a loss to No. 6/8 SUNY Geneseo Ice Knights. The only win in this three-game stretch saw the Bengals barely edge out a win over the eighth-placed College at Brockport Golden Eagles.

The Blue Devils have won nine of their last 10 games and have clinched a playoff berth, with hopes of avenging the 4-2 loss to the Lakers from earlier this season.

Even though the teams appear to be coming in at opposite ends of the spectrum, this weekend is the final chance to determine playoff seeding and head coach Ed Gosek knows neither game will come easy for his club.

“This time of year, it’s an exciting time,” Gosek said. “You work all season long to position yourselves for the playoffs. So what would we expect? We expect them to compete extremely hard and bring their A-game here against the first-place team in the conference.”

Oswego State is on the verge of running the table in the regular season and going wire-to-wire as the top team in the conference. Even with this success all season, Gosek and his staff are not taking anything for granted in the final portion of the regular season.

“We don’t feel that we’ve peaked and we’re just treading water here,” Gosek said. “Some weeks it’s different things, but we’re improving in a lot of little areas. There’s still a lot of work to do, but we are at least going in the right direction.”

This was evident last weekend during the Lakers’ home-and-home series against SUNY Canton. Both games were wins for Oswego State, but changes from Friday to Saturday were evidence of Gosek’s previous assertion of his team continuing to improve.

“I thought [Saturday] was much, much better than Friday night,” Gosek said. “Our compete level was much improved over Friday. Guys were willing to take hits to make plays. Guys were being aggressive in all three zones. We pressured the puck much better than Friday night. We seemed to be sharper in our mental decisions, and [SUNY Canton] worked extremely hard. They worked hard, and we needed that because they forced our [defense] into making decisions quicker than they would have to. They worked hard on the backcheck so our forwards had to push the pace and push the puck. I thought it was a step in the right direction.”

Gosek also said he plans to continue to tinker with line combinations past this weekend in search of the coaching staff’s ideal lineup. Saturday poses additional questions because of the postgame senior night ceremony.

“There’s going to be some hard decisions to make this weekend and the following weekend,” Gosek said. “This is our last so-called weekend to juggle things a bit to try to give some guys one last look here.”

And through 23 games, there still has not been a lineup the coaching staff is completely  satisfied with.

“In a perfect world, we’ve got four lines that we think we have chemistry and they’re the right guys,” Gosek said. “We haven’t gotten a point, even with the six [defenseman], where were all in agreement or all sold that this is it.”

These changes could involve any player on the roster, skater or goaltender, to keep the same competitive atmosphere going within the dressing room.   

“Believe me, nobody’s job is safe here,” Gosek said. “They all have to continue to earn what they get and whether it’s [Alex] Botten or [Joey] Davies or Kenny Neil, it makes no difference.”

Matt Zawadzki, who suffered a lower-body injury on Feb. 3, is back skating and working his way back to the blue paint in his senior season. Zawadzki would give back the goaltending depth the Lakers have had all season. Gosek said he would like to give him a start before playoffs, but right now there is no set plan.

“Will he be game prepared? Time will tell,” Gosek said. “It’s going to be a process up until Friday night and seeing how he progresses. Along with our trainer and him, you have to make the right decision.”

“Is he ready?” Gosek said. “Is he ready to go 100 percent? Is he just going because he wants to play because it’s senior weekend. You know there is a lot of things to consider there, and I’m sure when we hash it all out, we’ll do what’s best in the long run for the program, for the team this year.”