With a bye into the semifinal round of the SUNYAC Championship, the top-seeded Oswego State men’s ice hockey team eliminated the fourth-seeded Buffalo State Bengals with a 6-2 victory in front of 2,211 people at the Marano Campus Center Ice Arena Saturday night.

The Lakers scored four times in the third period to put the Bengals away, advancing to the SUNYAC Championship Final with help from Matt Zawadzki and his 25 saves.

For the Bengals, Mike DeLaVergne was awarded the loss and allowed six goals on 42 shots to end his senior season.

“It was a grind the whole game until we were able to open it up there in the third period,” head coach Ed Gosek said postgame. “But I thought as we’ve been preaching all year, sticking with the process and not taking any unnecessary chances, letting the game come to us.”

Oswego State was forced to play with five defenseman for the remainder of the contest after Hugo Petit hit Kristoffer Brun into the end boards just 45 seconds into regulation, forcing him to leave the game with a shoulder injury.

“Especially tonight losing Brun early and have to go with 5 [defenseman] for a majority of the game was a good test for them,” Gosek said. “I thought our [defense] and [Zawadzki] played well in our own end and then gave us the opportunity offensively to create things.”

After a scoreless first twenty minutes, Oswego State was able to escape the second period with a 2-1 lead. Kenny Neil picked up where he left off last weekend and scored at the 5:37 mark of the second period. He whiffed on his initial shot attempt, but was able to steer his second chance through the five-hole of DeLaVergne to open the scoring. Mitchell Herlihey and Chris Raguseo were credited with assists on the game’s first tally.

Buffalo State answered less than two minutes later. Zach Nieminen wired a one-timed chance from on top of the far-side circle by Zawadzki to tie the game at one all. He was set up by Brody Power and Michael Guerrera at 7:28 of the second period.

The Lakers answered when Alex Botten won the faceoff to set up the go-ahead goal at the 16:34 mark to help Oswego State regain the lead on its second power play opportunity of the game. Right off the draw, Shawn Hulshof received a pass from Matt Galati and beat DeLaVergne high glove side with a slap shot from the point just three seconds into the man advantage.

This was Hulshof’s first of two goals on the night. He was also later credited with an assist on Botten’s goal to make it a 4-1 game, completing his three-point night on the way to earning the first star nod.

“I thought my line started off a little slow,” Hulshof said. “I mean last two games we’ve been struggling a little, but overall today I think we just stuck to the plan. All week in practice [we] stuck to the plan and getting shots to the net, doing what we could to create some traffic. It’s nice getting those points, but even better off getting the win.”

The Lakers owned the final period of play scoring four times to pull away from the Bengals and secure a spot in the SUNYAC title game.

Hulshof started the scoring in the final period of regulation. Botten, Mitchell Herlihey and Chris Waterstreet also scored to help further bury the Bengals.

Buffalo State later was able to dig into the lead when Jonathan Colley had a breakaway chance on the power play. Colley did not get all of his shot attempt, but the weak shot fooled Zawadzki to cut the deficit to four.

SUNY Plattsburgh’s 5-2 win over SUNY Geneseo in the other SUNYAC semifinal matchup has now set a date for the third meeting between the Lakers and Cardinals this season. This year’s senior class has never beaten SUNY Plattsburgh on home ice and will have one more shot to do just that next Saturday night.