Opening the season ranked at No. 7 in both the USCHO and D3hockey.com polls, the Oswego State Lakers men’s hockey team began with a weekend split against Elmira College and Hobart College to bring their record to 1-1-0.

In the regular season opener, Oswego State overcame a two-goal deficit against the Soaring Eagles of Elmira College and scored four unanswered goals to close out the game with a win.

“I thought [Joey] Scorpio had a good game, [Josh] Zizek obviously had a good game,” head coach Ed Gosek said. “The defense in general played pretty well, all pretty consistent.”

Zizek was the standout of the game on the ice, scoring three of the Laker’s four goals on the night. Scorpio fed him the first two goals in a similar fashion both times.

On the first goal, Scorpio passed the puck in front of the net and found a slashing Zizek in the slot to cut the deficit in half. A similar play, this time on the power play, tied the game at the 17:10 mark of the first period.

The game remained tied until 5:28 of the third period, when David Ferreira scored, again on the power play, to give Oswego State a lead they would not relinquish.

A negative takeaway from the Lakers win, was the 10 penalties they were given on the night, which is far too many for Gosek’s expectations.

In net against Elmira College was David Richer, receiving his first regular season start as a Laker.

“I thought David gave up some rebounds that he hadn’t been giving up on Saturday night,” Gosek said. “He made some big saves when he had to. I can’t really fault him on either of the goals that were scored.”

For the game, Richer made 30 saves on 32 shots for save percentage of .938 and his first notch in the win column.

What overshadowed the game on the ice was TEAL Night, which dedicated the game to ovarian cancer awareness and honored Gosek’s wife, Mary, who passed away from the disease on June 3.

“The impact that Mary had was unbelievable,” Gosek said. “It was a nice honor.”

After collecting the win against the Soaring Eagles, the Lakers moved on to a Sunday afternoon game on the road against No. 9/10 Hobart College, who had just fallen to Elmira College in overtime two nights earlier.

Taking the ice in a top-10 matchup, both the Lakers and Statesmen had a point to prove and show who was the dominant team.

Stealing the show in The Cooler, Hobart College’s home rink in Geneva, was junior Jonas Toupal.

The Celna, Czech Republic, native scored both Statesmen goals, including the overtime winner just 52 seconds into the period to secure the win.

Both of Toupal’s goals came against Lakers goaltender Cedric Hansen, who, like Richer the night before, was in net for his first collegiate start.

“Cedric, I thought, played well,” Gosek said. “That’s a positive.”

In spite of some nervous feelings early in the game, Hansen was able to keep the Lakers in the game despite being outshot 27-19.

With a final line of 25 saves for a .926 save percentage and a goals against average of 1.97, Hansen was happy with his performance in spite of the loss.

“For the first period or so, I was still getting my footing with things, getting used to the pace of play a little more,” Hansen said. “With my first college start, there’s going to be some nerves there. At the end of the day, it’s tough to get the loss, but it felt pretty good to get my first start.”

An important note from the game against Hobart College is the injury sustained by Lakers forward and senior captain Mitch Herlihey.

“He took a couple hits Sunday,” Gosek said. “Whether he’ll play or not [on Nov. 3], I don’t know. I would guess not, but who knows?”

The Lakers will try to bounce back from the loss and rebound in their first SUNYAC contest of the year on Nov. 3 against the 0-2 SUNY Cortland Red Dragons on the road.

Photo: Dominick Lioto | The Oswegonian