Head coach Ed Gosek opened the door of his office after talking to his team. Waiting for him were family members, including his daughter Sarah, and life-long fans, like Billy Dixon — all dressed in teal clothing. Gosek himself had a teal tie and teal ribbon on his suit jacket.

He asked how they all were, and was met with a, “Well, how are you?”

“It’s just a game,” Gosek said. He proceeded to make sure everyone waiting was given a hug as players slowly exited the locker room to go home for the night.

In the seventh annual TEAL gate, the No. 3 Oswego State men’s hockey team fell to the hands of SUNYAC rival Buffalo State 6-5 Saturday night.

“Unfortunately tonight it wasn’t in the cards with the hockey gods,” Gosek said. “It’s a game. It didn’t go our way. We didn’t play well enough to get it done.”

The TEAL game was in remembrance of Gosek’s wife, Mary, who passed away from ovarian cancer in the summer of 2017. This was the second TEAL game without Mary in attendance. During the game, fans cheered for the first minute of each period like Mary would and it was called “Mary’s Minute.”

After the game, Gosek used an analogy with his team about Mary and dealing with the loss.

“She didn’t feel sorry for herself. I felt sorry for her, everyone else felt sorry for her, but she refused,” Gosek said. “I used that analogy with the players. It’s a game. Not life.”

Only juniors and seniors who were with Oswego State during the 2016-2017 season actually met Mary. But, Gosek made sure the players that did not meet Mary knew what kind of person she was.

“The only thing she ever judged the team on was their passion and their commitment,” Gosek said.

Buffalo State played with that passion, however, in the opening period when the Bengals scored three goals in the first 13 minutes on eight shots. Immediately after the third goal by Braedon Doust, junior David Richer was sent to the bench and was replaced by Cedric Hansen.

“I really can’t fault him as much as trying to get some momentum and getting our guys tuned in here,” Gosek said. “We have total confidence in [Richer]. That’s part of the game. It happens. You move on.”

The Lakers had four different goal scorers during the game. Max Novick would score the Lakers’ first goal to bring the score to 3-1. After a quick Buffalo State goal 40 seconds later, Carter Allen added his own goal. It was the second game in a row where a defenseman scored for the Lakers.

But, where it counted for the team’s blueliners, Oswego State gave up six goals — the most it has given up in a single game since Oct. 24, 2015, during the exhibition game against the CCHL All-Graduate team.

“I thought they certainly had their looks,” Gosek said. “But, we’ve got to be better off the rush, defensively, off draws. That’s the bottom line.”

Heading into the third period, Buffalo State led Oswego State 5-2 after a late goal with eight seconds left in the second period. But, despite the final goal that sealed the win for the Bengals at 14:49 of the third period, the Lakers had a lot of control during the final frame.

Joseph Molinaro had two goals to bring the Lakers within one goal of tying the game, with Mitch Emerson scoring at 13:46 to tie the game at five. Despite pulling Hansen for the sixth man on offense, Oswego State could not tie the game again in the last couple minutes.

“I can’t say we didn’t work in the first and second period, but it was, and I don’t mean individual in the selfish way, I don’t think we were connected as a unit of five guys on the ice like we had been up until tonight,” Gosek said. “I thought we were in the third just not the first two.”

Gosek continued to remember Mary’s life as more players left the rink. Some went directly to cars, while others went to meet with family members and friends.

“There’s no hanging heads or feeling sorry for ourselves as [Mary] didn’t,” Gosek said. “We’ll be better hopefully next weekend. We’ll have a good week of practice. You [have to] get back after it.”

Photo by: Maria Pericozzi | The Oswegonian