The No. 2 Oswego State Lakers upset the No. 3 Buffalo State Bengals in dominating fashion on Saturday, Feb. 24 in a 5-0 rout at the Buffalo State Ice Arena.

The Lakers repeated history against Buffalo State. In the opening round of the ECAC West playoffs during the 2015-2016 season, Oswego State defeated the Bengals 5-0 to advance to the championship game. Oswego State head coach Diane Dillon was overjoyed with the victory.

“We played playoff hockey,” Dillon said. “We came today to make a statement. We showed up, we were well prepared. We executed the gameplan almost flawlessly.”

Oswego State surged early with Jean-Marie Padden scoring the opening goal at 5:28 of the first period. She was able to force a turnover in their offensive zone and dangle around a defenseman to score through the five-hole of goaltender Justine Silva.

Padden also scored a short-handed goal in the third period, and Olivia Ellis also had a two-goal performance in the win. Ellis’s second was a power play goal. Overall, the penalty kill went 6-6 and the power play went 1-5 in the game against the Bengals.

“What it tells you is that our special teams is being effective,” Dillon said. “We’ve been historically a fantastic penalty killing team and this year we’ve been struggling. I’m going to have to credit our defensemen for coming up big and clearing the puck.”

Mariah Madrigal received her fourth shutout of the season and 12th in her career. This was also the second shutout against Buffalo State this season. She had a 3-0 win over the Bengals on Nov. 11.

Madrigal made 24 saves in net through the sixty minutes of play, including 10 in the third period alone.

“As a senior and knowing that it’s her net, she’s worked her whole career for this,” Dillon said. “When we got in a little bit of trouble, she came up with a big save for us. You have to get a little lucky, too.”

Andrea Noss also scored for the Lakers and finished with two points adding an assist on the first Ellis goal. She once again showed her power at the faceoff circle by going 15-23, as well.

Dillon stated that she was happy with the entire team after the victory, but especially with the defense which really bailed them out throughout the game.

“We’ve shown flashes of [success], and we finally put it all together,” Dillon said. “They played with energy that we haven’t seen in a long time. We were able to do the things we’ve been working on, and they executed it.”

Also notable was the number of sacrificial blocks the team made. The Lakers were strong on all aspects of defense against the Bengals, including interceptions, as well. Dillon said that the team was really playing for each other.

“This could have been the senior’s last game, but now they have another week in the season,” Dillon said. “Today we approached it to one shift at a time. Now it’s one game at a time.”

The Lakers are now one game away from an NCAA Div. III national tournament bid with the NEWHL championship. They will play the Plattsburgh State Cardinals on March 3. However, Dillon is aware of the challenge ahead. It would be the first tournament appearance in program history for the Lakers.

“We’ve proven we can play with Plattsburgh,” Dillon said. “If we come with the kind of game that we did today, we’re going to give Plattsburgh a run for their money.”

With the victory, the Lakers will now advance to the NEWHL championships and take on the No. 1 Plattsburgh State Cardinals, who defeated No. 4 SUNY Potsdam 6-1 on Feb. 24, as well.

During the regular season, the Lakers went 0-3-1 against the Cardinals. They tied 2-2 Feb. 3, and the Lakers were able to ruin the perfect conference record for the Cardinals.

“It’s about putting our gameplan in place, and making sure that we’re prepared for what Plattsburgh brings,” Dillon said. “Just like we prepared for Buffalo is how we’ll prepare for Plattsburgh.”

While Buffalo State (13-11-2, 9-7-1 NEWHL) and SUNY Potsdam (12-12-2, 4-11-2 NEWHL) will wait until the 2018 fall semester for the next hockey season, the Oswego State Lakers (12-12-2, 8-8-1 NEWHL) will head to the north country to Plattsburgh State (22-2-2, 16-0-1) for the NEWHL championship game.