It is the second meeting of the season for Oswego State and SUNY Canton, except this time the teams will meet in the Marano Campus Center Ice Arena for the championship game of the Pathfinder Bank/Oswego State Hockey Classic. The Lakers will look to win their own tournament for the first time since 2017. Once again, no rankings have been updated since Dec. 10 for both D3hockey and USCHO.

Oswego State now sits at 9-3-0 (5-2-0 SUNYAC) with SUNY Canton posting a 6-6-2 (N/A) record.

Last Time Out

Oswego State

To open up the tournament, the Lakers defeated Salve Regina University 6-2, in a similar fashion to their win against Williams College on Dec. 30. After a five-goal first period, where Oswego State led 3-2, the Lakers opened the floodgates in the third period and tacked on three more en route to the championship game against SUNY Canton. Both Michael Gillespie and Joseph Molinaro had a goal and an assist each to lead the team with two points. Tyler Currie, Anthony Passero, Max Novick and Josh Nenadal (shorthanded) all scored as well. David Richer made 22 saves in net, including 10 during the third period.

The Lakers’ special teams units were strong defensively, going 5-6 on the penalty kill. The team allowed one power play goal, the second Seahawk goal, during the first period. However, the Lakers went 0-8 on the power play. The Lakers, at the end of the fall semester, was No. 1 in the nation on the power play, but fell to SUNY Geneseo after the weekend against Williams College. Oswego State is now tied for third with a 27.3 percent success rate.

SUNY Canton

Also opening up the tournament, SUNY Canton defeated Concordia University-Wisconsin with a 5-2 win, two of the goals were empty net goals. The Roos went 0-2 on the power play, but went 2-3 on the penalty kill. Adam Petric and Sean David both had a goal and an assist to lead the Roos.

Kyler Matthews, Bailey Conklin and Stuart Fierheller all added goals, as well. Michael Cerasuolo made 30 saves throughout the 60 minutes, including 16 saves in the first period alone.

Lakers and Roos History

The two teams have faced once this season at SUNY Canton, where the Lakers 6-2 for their second win of the season. Four Lakers posted a multi-point game, with Michael Gillespie leading the way with a goal and two assists. Josh Zizek (2g), Tyler Currie (2a) and Derek Brown (2a) all had two points. Twelve players for the Lakers registered at least one point. Cedric Hansen played in the game up north, and made 15 saves throughout the contest. Oswego State also went 3-9 on the power play, posting a 33.3 percent success rate.

For SUNY Canton, Jeffrey Gauld registered two assists. Joe Deveny (power-play) and Christopher Mammas both scored for the Roos. Austin Washkurak made 32 saves in the contest.

Past this season’s contest, the two teams have played 15 other times, and the Lakers are 14-1 in those games. The only Roos win against the Lakers was Nov. 18, 1972, where SUNY Canton won 6-5 at Oswego State’s rink. Oswego State has scored 103 goals in the 16 contests between the two teams, averaging 6.4 per game, compared to SUNY Canton’s 39, averaging 2.4 per game.

By the Numbers

RECORD (conference) [vs. each other]

OSW: 9-3-0 (5-2-0 SUNYAC) [15-1-0]

CAN: 6-6-2 (N/A) [1-15-0]

GOALS (per game) [vs. each other all-time]

OSW: 47 (3.9) [103 / 6.4]

CAN: 43 (3.1) [39 / 2.4]

SHOTS (per game) [shooting percentage] 

OSW: 321 (26.8) [14.6%]

CAN: 359 (25.6) [12.0%]

POWER PLAY (percentage)

OSW: 15-55 (27.3%)

CAN: 11-57 (19.3%)

Player to Watch

OSW: Josh Nenadal 

Josh Nenadal is currently riding a four-game point streak, following the shorthanded goal that he posted in the game against Salve Regina University. He now has eight points on the season with four goals and four assists — two of those goals are shorthanded. The senior transfer from NCAA Div. I Lake Superior State University has made an impact both on the scoring sheet as well as being a physical player on that fourth line. Last night, he was paired with Joey Scorpio and Jody Sullivan. Nenadal will be key in a game like tonight, playing against another physical team, and will be crucial as the season carries on.

CAN: Tyson Bruce

The name Tyson Bruce should sound familiar to Oswego State fans after the last couple seasons. Bruce transferred from Oswego State during the winter break to SUNY Canton and has been placed on the first line. He only played in one game with the Lakers and registered no points this season. He played in 16 games throughout his freshman and sophomore seasons. While at SUNY Canton, he has played only three games and has registered three points, including an assist against Concordia University Wisconsin. This will be his first game at at the Marano Campus Center Ice Arena in a uniform other than an Oswego State one, and will be a player to watch as he goes against his former team.

Lines (provided by SUNY Canton athletics)

At time of posting, no lines had been provided by Oswego State athletics.

WNYO sports director Cole Parzych noted that David Richer was in warm-up attire, as well as Tyler Antonucci, A.J. D’Orazio and Bunka were all in warm-up attire, as well. It is unofficial that they will be playing in the game against SUNY Canton.

SUNY Canton

Forwards

No. 28 : Tyson Bruce | No. 16 : Tyler Bullard | No. 26 : Anthony Filoso

No. 14 : Adam Petric | No. 18 : Reily McIntosh | No. 19 : Zach Pease

No. 23 : Sean David | No. 8 : Zach Ahola | No. 27 : Joe Deveny

No. 12 : Bailey Conklin | No. 15 : Matt Needleman | No. 9 : William Ma

Defense

No. 21 : Sean Shepard | No. 10 : Kyler Matthews

No. 38 : Luke Hincenbergs | No. 44 : Stuart Fierheller

No. 25 : Connor Tuttle | No. 13 : David Hopfer

Goaltenders

No. 33 : Michael Cerasuolo

No. 29 : Austin Washkurak

No. 35 : Josh Erickson

Extra Skater

No. 17 : Max Routledge

Scratches: Roger Powers, Marcus Baird, Jake Mayette, Christopher Mammas, Mike Hans

Prediction

It is obvious that Oswego State has had a dominance over SUNY Canton in all of its history. Typically, the wins are large, as well, including the 6-2 win earlier in the season. David Richer will get his fifth straight start in the game against the Roos. The Lakers were firing on all cylinders against Salve Regina University, and to put up six goals against a goaltender like Blake Wojtala, who Oswego State assistant coach Mark Digby said could potentially be the NCAA Div. III Goaltender of the Year, is a great feat to have heading into the championship game and into conference games in a couple weeks.

The Lakers will look to get another win under their belt before the semester starts again in late January, and it all starts with SUNY Canton. No team should be underestimated, especially after falling three times already this season. SUNY Canton is coming off a couple big wins, including last night’s against Concordia University Wisconsin, a win against No. 3/3 Adrian College, and a win and tie against then-No. 14 SUNY Fredonia. SUNY Canton will look to knock off another ranked opponent in Oswego State.

While it has been a repeated theme, the Lakers are a deep team — now with 31 players on their roster — and have scoring opportunities from all four lines, and including some defensive spark, after seeing Tyler Currie and Max Novick score last night. The depth of the team might just be too much for the Roos to handle, with nine freshman on the roster. That class makes up the Roos’ entire fourth line, and first line of defense. The freshman have been able to score a decent amount, but it might not be enough.

Prediction: the Lakers take this game 5-1.