Despite losing four of its last eight regular season games, the women’s hockey team turned it up when it mattered most, for the playoffs. In the Lakers’ inaugural season in the Northeast Women’s Hockey Conference, Oswego State reached the conference championship. The Lakers defeated the Buffalo State Bengals 5-0 in the semifinals just before they lost to Plattsburgh State 6-0. Even though they were shrugged off by the Cardinals in the finals, the Lakers should be proud of their effort. Plattsburgh State is a historically great program that went 15-0-1 in NEWHL and reached the semi-finals of the NCAA Div. III Frozen Four.
Heading into this season, the Lakers will be without several key players who graduated, including the program’s leading scorer Olivia Ellis, her linemate Andrea Noss and NEWHL goalie of the year Mariah Madrigal. Despite the loss of their star goalie, who was an alternate captain, the team is confident in their back end.
“Looking at our preseason, our goaltending will be strong, and then we will have to work our way out from there,” junior forward Eryn Stewart said. “The most important [thing] is keeping goals out of the net.”
The Lakers bring back a majority of their starters on defense, as the lone defender that graduated was Victoria Blake. This consistency from year to year is integral to a fast start, given the chemistry they built over the last season. The key returner is junior Kate Randazzo, who can play on both sides of the ice. She led the team in plus/minus last year and proved she can keep the puck out of her own net. In the offensive zone, Randazzo was second on the team in points with 19 in 27 games played. With Randazzo leading some underclassmen like sophomore Philomena Teggart, who was fifth on the team in blocks last year, this is a defense that could improve on its play from last season and even decrease the 35 goals it gave up in 15 conference games last season.
While the Lakers’ defense has been solidified by the three new goalies they added to the roster, Oswego State has some question marks when it comes to scoring goals. With the departures of six seniors, the Lakers lost over 40 percent, 25 goals, out of their offensive production from last season.
While it is futile to rely on a freshman class right out of the gate, Dillon has hope for the class of 10 freshmen that joined the team. They all bring a different skill set, from size to speed, and, most importantly, a lot of hockey smarts.
“[They are] a very eclectic class. We brought in some size. We’ve been pushed around a bit. We brought in some bigger kids with nice long sticks to cover up some ice,” Dillon said. “We brought in some speed and hockey talent and definitely some hockey IQ. It is going to be interesting to see how they mesh together, but all of the freshmen are very talented in their own right.”
Oswego State needs to rely on this season’s sophomore and junior classes, who made up 14 of the team’s 23 players. The 2018 sophomore class started off pretty slow last season. One of the top players of that class is forward Jean-Marie Padden, who ended the season fifth in points despite scoring just three in the first 10 games of the season. With a full season of collegiate hockey under their belts, Dillon demands her sophomores to step up and contribute right away.
“They are expected to hit the ground running,” Dillon said. “Freshman year is always an adventure, academically as well as athletically, so you have to get your feet wet. Now, when you come back as a sophomore, you are expected to contribute immediately…We don’t want to hear about [the sophomore slump]…Their expectation is they’re going to prepare, perform and bring it every game.”
Toward the end of Monday’s season-opening press conference, Dillon made her expectations for the season known.
“Postseason play…we took a hard road to get there last year, but we got there and made it to the championship game for the first time. Anything short of that will be, in my opinion. not where we want to be,” Dillon said. “Our goal is to get back to that game, and we want to get to the NCAA tournament, plain and simple.”
Reaching the conference finals is certainly a difficult task for any team, especially in the NEWHL, considering the fact that the nationally ranked Plattsburgh State Cardinals’ spot is nearly reserved every year. However, the Lakers are primed to return to the finals as long as they can obtain the second or third seed in the NEWHL.
Regardless of the other teams in the conference, it all depends on the Lakers. They need to find some consistent offense this season, something that was lacking at some points last season. In fact, they had a five-game stretch in which they scored just two goals.
Heading into the season, it is anticipated that players like Leah Czerwinski and Teggart are going to produce more offensively, jumping up from six and eight points, respectively, to a top-five point producer on this team. If those two can reach double digits in terms of points, it would take a lot of pressure off the top producers from last season.
The Lakers return three of their top five point scorers and six of their top 10. It is feasible to see Padden and even her classmate Emma Morisette score at a point per game clip, replacing Ellis’ 25 points in 26 games.
With a defense that is extremely confident in its goaltending and in its own end, once the Lakers can find their offense, they should have no problem reaching the NEWHL conference finals and potentially get closer to the Plattsburgh State Cardinals.
Photo by Taylor Woods | The Oswegonian
