OFFENSE

The Lakers looked determined and prepared in the first period, but still had that scoring drought monkey on their back. Breakaway and power play opportunities slipped away from them for the most part, but they still looked in rhythm offensively.

On a Fredonia power-play in the first period, Mitch Herlihey forced a turnover and had one-on-one opportunity on the break, but was not able to come up the score.

Back-to-back penalties against the Lakers disrupted their chance to stay in rhythm and had SUNY Fredonia shifting the momentum toward them.

At 17:34 in the first period, the Blue Devils took the lead 1-0 with a goal scored by Josh Biasillo, assisted by Sean Leonard. Just 11 seconds later, Fredonia snuck another past Laker goalie David Richer to make it 2-0. Putting mostly everyone at Marano Campus Center in disbelief.

The script went the same in the second period. Fredonia made it 3-0 with a slap-shot goal zipping past Richer in the top-right corner of the net. All three goals for Fredonia came in the remaining three minutes of the first and second period.

It was 19 straight power-plays without a goal for the Lakers and a elbowing penalty on Blue Devil’s Victor Tracy just over two minutes into the period would make it 20 straight if the Lakers failed to convert a goal.

Shot after shot and nine periods without a goal, it was finally Mitch Emerson who was able to score off a shot attempt to bring like back into the Lakers and their home crowd with over 15 minutes remaining.

Although, despite having 16 shots compared to Fredonia’s two in the third period, the Lakers were not able to open the flood gates and rally.

GOALTENDING

Richer has been one of the best goaltenders in SUNYAC all season, but did not have his best night in front of the net. Fredonia scored three goals on only 14 shot attempts through the first period. The Lakers defense only managed to allow a total of 16 shots for the entire game.

The second goal scored just 11 seconds after they took a 1-0 lead seemed to have caught Richer off guard and was certainly a big turning point of the game.

The difference maker in the game was Fredonia’s goaltender Anton Rose for his performance in front of the net. Along with the help of a goalies best friend the “post”, Rosen notched 33 saves and stiffened the frustration of a once dominated Laker offense.

It seemed as if there were more close calls for the Lakers to score then there was. But Rosen did the best he could as the Lakers offense seemed to have their way with the Blue Devil defense.

Photo by Kyle Hurley | The Oswegonian