On Feb. 21, No. 5 SUNY Fredonia defeated No. 4 Plattsburgh State in the opening round of the SUNYAC playoffs by a score of 4-3 at the Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena to advance to the SUNYAC semifinal against No. 1 Oswego State.

SUNY Fredonia has an overall record of 12-10-4 with the win over the Cardinals and finished with a conference record of 7-8-1. Oswego State’s overall record is at 18-5-2 with their conference record at 13-2-1.

Oswego State men’s ice hockey team will be playing SUNY Fredonia Feb. 24 at the Marano Campus Center Ice Arena after falling to SUNY Potsdam and Plattsburgh State last weekend. The Lakers are coming off consecutive 1-0 losses to those same two teams, which is their first multi-game skid of the season.

“There’s certain specific things with power play we got to be better on,” Oswego State head coach Ed Gosek said. “I thought we played well in both games.”

Despite suffering through the worst weekend of their season, Gosek was optimistic about his team’s performance.

“I thought we hung together as a team,” Gosek said. “There was no finger pointing, there was no coming apart at the seams. Those are all positive things.”

From a player perspective, nothing will change from a mental standpoint heading into the matchup with the Blue Devils.

“Nothing changes at all,” Oswego State goaltender David Richer said. “We played well, the puck just didn’t bounce for us these two games.”

Each game the Lakers have played since their 4-2 win over SUNY Geneseo on Feb. 9 has had playoff implications for at least one team involved, so the added pressure of potential season ending scenarios changed how each game is played.

“Everybody is less risky, they’re playing more of a high percentage game, Gosek said.

“This past weekend we weren’t opportunistic, we had a lot of chances to be. That’s the bottom line, we gotta be better at finding a way to get some pucks to go in along with continuing to play defensively.”

Although they did not see the results they expected, the Lakers were confident that the weekend was an aberration.

“I think guys were focused this weekend, they had the right mindset,” Senior captain Mitchell Herlihey said. “But that’s hockey sometimes, sometimes the better team doesn’t win.”

SUNY Fredonia comes into this weekend as the hotter team with three consecutive wins. Both times SUNY Fredonia met with Oswego State this season, they lost by a combined score of 10-3.

For Oswego State, scoring is the main priority this weekend, especially when it comes to the power plays, in which they have come up empty in their last 16 opportunities.

“At the end of the day, the  power play’s gotta somehow get at least one in there,” sophomore Michael Gillespie said. “Hopefully this week we can find a way and that’s what we’re gonna work on all week in practice.”

These struggles have come at the worst time possible for Oswego State, who could potentially have their season ended with a loss against SUNY Fredonia.

“I think on the power play, we just didn’t have enough urgency,” Gillespie said. “I know we had the chances, we had the shots, we just didn’t get the chances and there were some chances that were there and we just didn’t capitalize on.”

Oswego State will have an advantage this weekend since they will be playing on home ice, which is a goal the team had since the onset of the season.

“It’s pretty exciting with the team we have right now, it’s a good group of guys in the locker room,” Gillespie said. “We’ve worked hard all year to be in the situation we’re in right now to have home ice advantage in the semifinals.”

Even with last weekend’s setbacks, the Lakers are still 9-3-0 at the Marano Campus Center Ice Arena this season.

“It’s definitely an advantage, but it brings out the best in other teams too, so, we got to be ready for that,” Herlihey said.

One of the things that makes playing at home enjoyable  for Oswego State is the amount of fans that come to support them.

“Every team knows how hard it is to play on the road,” Herlihey said. “That being said, we have this nice rink we fill with fans every night. Teams like to play here. You have two to three thousand people cheering for you.”

Photo: Taylor Woods | The Oswegonian