After six total goals were scored in the first period, the Oswego State Lakers were not able to overcome the large deficit and lost to the Plattsburgh State Cardinals 6-2 on Feb. 2. Julieann White and Laura Thacker both scored in the defeat. Olivia Ellis, who had two assists, scored her 100th point of her career as a Laker.

Scoring opened up early in the Saturday night matchup, with the Cardinals’ Kayla Meneghin scoring the first goal at 3:05 of the first period. Oswego State would tie the game moments later on the power play, after Maci Hoskins was given a minor penalty for hooking. White had the goal, with Ellis and Kate Randazzo tallying the assists. Also in the first period, Mariah Madrigal made some top-quality saves. She saved a two-man breakaway early in the first period, and also stopped a one-on-one chance later in the game.

Head coach Diane Dillon was impressed with how Madrigal composed herself, despite letting up the five goals. She claimed that the experience her senior goaltender had racked up in order to stay collected and not “crumble” was crucial in the matchup.

“It’s a tough start, a couple of those goals we let her out to dry,” Dillon said. “Her mental toughness really shone through, she kept fighting. She made a couple tremendous saves. She didn’t quit, she showed a lot of inner-strength.”

The Cardinals scored four more goals to jump out to a commanding 5-1 lead after the first 20 minutes of the game. Abby Brush, Melissa Sheeran, Madison Walker and Meghan Kraus all scored for Plattsburgh State.  Four players posted multi-point games for the Cardinals. Ellis and White posted them for the Lakers. However, in a change of events, no goals were scored in the second period to keep the score at 5-1. Dillon made sure her team looked at the second period as if the score was 0-0 again.

“[I told them] to take a deep breath. [Plattsburgh State] is good, but they’re not untouchable,” Dillon said. “We made a couple of big mistakes, and you can’t do that against a team of their caliber. We did settle down quite a bit. If we had played the first 20 minutes like we did the last 40, then it would’ve been okay.”

Instead of the plethora of goals seen in the opening period, the second period had high amounts of penalties. There were eight minor penalties throughout the period. However, the big penalty came from Ellis, who received a 10-minute misconduct at 13:36. She was not happy about the referee’s lack of goaltender interference call, according to Dillon.

“There was a penalty called, and our captain was questioning the official about [Plattsburgh State] taking out the goaltender,” Dillon said. “He didn’t care for the way she did that, I thought she was respectful. He thought it warranted a 10-minute misconduct, which we thought it was ridiculous.”

The Oswego State power play was decent throughout the game. They went 2-9 during the game. However, they were not able to convert on a couple of opportunities with a two-man advantage. Thacker’s late goal was the second power play goal of the night, and the only one that was able to convert during the 5-on-3. Despite the lack of physical goals, Dillon was impressed with her special teams overall.

The penalty kill was only given four opportunities to shine, but went 3-for-4 on the night.

“We did a real nice job on the power play. We moved the puck well, and we controlled the puck quite a bit,” Dillon said. “Our first unit, with Noss, she’s winning faceoffs like there’s no tomorrow. It sets us up for possession time right in the zone. We’re happy with the power play.”

Dillon is hoping to repeat history, comparing this game to last season. The Lakers were defeated 7-1 at Plattsburgh State in the first game of a weekend series, but then came back to win 3-2 during the grudge match. With the 6-2 loss this evening, the Lakers will return to the ice tomorrow not even 12 hours later to face the Cardinals.

“We’ve got another shot at these guys,” Dillon said. “A year ago, it was kind of a similar outcome. We can play with these guys. If you look at the team today compared to two weeks ago, there’s a lot more jump a lot more fight.”

The Lakers and the defending national champion Cardinals will square off against on Feb. 3 at the Marano Campus Ice Arena at 2:45 p.m. for their fourth and final regular season meeting.

“We have to come ready to fight,” Dillon said. “We have to have the entire team with the focus and passion to be successful. If we all come on the same page, I think it’s going to be a good game tomorrow.”