An emotional contest between the Oswego State Lakers and the Elmira College Soaring Eagles took place tonight in the Marano Campus Center Ice Arena that saw the Lakers win 4-2.

After a tribute to the late Mary Gosek, the game began with Mary’s Minute. For the first minute of the game, every member of the 2,851 person crowd stood wore teal shirts and cheered in honor of Mary, who passed away from ovarian cancer on June 3rd.

“Mary’s Minute, to hear the kids chanting, I don’t usually hear what they say, but hearing college kids yelling “Let’s go, Mary,” was very special to me.” head coach Ed Gosek said.

The atmosphere in Marano Campus Center made Gosek very emotional as he remembered his late wife.

“It was harder than the National Championship game,” Gosek said.

Though the star of the night was Mary Gosek, on the ice sophomore Josh Zizek took the spotlight for Oswego State with the biggest performance of his collegiate career scoring a hat trick to double his Oswego career total from three to six.

Even after his spectacular performance, Zizek chalked up the teams’ performance to give a little extra effort to remember Mary tonight.

“We didn’t say much before the game,” Zizek said. “We knew what she meant to us.”

Early in the game, shots came at a frenetic pace as both teams utilized their speed to take control of the neutral zone.

Elmira College jumped out to an early 2-0 lead courtesy of a Nick Ford power-play goal and Anthony Parucci snipe past David Richer.

“I was a little bit nervous in the beginning of the game,” Richer said. “The first half, I think, was tough for me. But we were able to get past it and get the win.”

Gosek felt Richer played a good game, despite the two early hiccups.

“I thought he tracked the puck well,” Gosek said. “All in all, I think he made some very good saves when we needed him to.”

Harry Kramer found Ford in front of the net who was able to rifle a shot off the crossbar and down past Richer to put the Soaring Eagles on the board at 8:48 of the first period.

Parucci found the back of the net on a powerful shot from the point that extended the Elmira College lead with 7:09 remaining on the clock in the first frame.

“Even though we were down 2-0, I can’t say we were playing poorly other than the discipline.”

Not to be outdone, the Lakers answered with two unanswered tallies of their own.

At the 15:37 mark of the first period, Zizek scored his first goal of the season after tracking down a puck in front of the net and firing it past Jake Sabourin to cut the Soaring Eagles lead in half.

Less than two minutes later, Zizek was able to do it again. This time on the power play, Joey Scorpio found Zizek in front of the net to tie the game at two.

For Zizek, the goals were just added pleasure to the atmosphere found in Marano Campus Center tonight honoring Mary.

“It was a big game for us, very emotional,” Zizek said. “To be able to put one in tonight is awesome. Three, obviously, it’s a great feeling.”

At the end of the first period, Oswego State was leading in shots 16-15.

The frenetic pace continued into the second period, but the scoring burst found in the first period disappeared.

The Lakers added 13 shots to their total, while the Soaring Eagles added nine during the middle frame.

Rather than scoring, the second period was defined by physical play and penalties that changed the dynamic.

“We just need to be more disciplined,” Gosek said. “I appreciate our guys’ enthusiasm and their effort. It wasn’t playing foolishly as much as it was their emotion. They certainly didn’t want to let me down tonight or let Mary down. So, they played hard and found a way to get it done.”

A total of eight penalties were called in the second period, leading to a lot of power play time for both teams. To answer that, both goalies were up to the challenge.

Both Richer and Sabourin excelled through adversity in the second period, stopping every shot they faced.

In the third, the Lakers were able to tack on two insurance goals, one from Ferreira, and a third from Zizek to close out the Soaring Eagles.

“It’s a good way to start the season,” Gosek said. “There was a lot of positivity. A lot of things we have to clean up, but overall, it’s a step in the right direction.”

To follow up, the Lakers will travel to Hobart College tomorrow to take on the 0-1 Statesmen who fell to Elmira College last night.