The Oswego State men’s hockey team finished its two exhibition games undefeated, but head coach Ed Gosek was “not pleased with how [they] played” against Nazareth College in its 4-3 win Saturday night.

Penalties were the issue for the Lakers, committing seven total infractions. Six of them were minor penalties, while there was one 10-minute misconduct from Michael Gillespie at the end of the second period. He was pulled from the game by Gosek and did not play the third period.

“You have to control emotions. You can’t have comments like that. It’s not acceptable,” Gosek said. “If we want to be a high-level, elite team, it starts with the inter-discipline that has to come with the players. They have to show it.”

Charlie Pelnik also served two minor penalties and Joey Scorpio had two of his own. Scorpio’s cross-checking penalty at 19:26 of the second period resulted in Ray Falso scoring for the Golden Flyers.

There was a lot of time on the penalty kill for Oswego State, which Gosek said played well, and the Lakers killed five of their six penalties. Joseph Molinaro even scored a short-handed goal after a two-on-one breakaway with Jody Sullivan.

“We gave a lot of guys opportunities who maybe hadn’t had it in the past [on the PK],” Gosek said. “It all comes together with continuity and consistency and chemistry.”

Travis Broughman, Tyler Currie and Sullivan also added goals of their own throughout the game. Sullivan, only 48 seconds into the game, Broughman at 16:46 of the second period and Currie with 16:58 left in the regulation period.

Between the two exhibition games for the Lakers, there have now been 11 different goal-scorers. The only player with multiple goals is Derek Brown, who had a hat-trick in the game against Carleton Place.

Gosek said, however, the team did not have a ton of quality chances in the 35 shots it threw on net against Nazareth’s Michael Tilford and Sean Kuhn.

“It’s nice to have balance,” Gosek said. “We reached our four goals per game.”

But, Oswego State lacked in the defensive department, according to Gosek. The team was not able to transition back to defense well and the Lakers need “to be better on the back check,” Gosek said.

Not transitioning fast enough led to the three-man tic-tac-toe play in front of Steven Kozikoski, resulting in a back-door, open net goal for the Golden Flyers’ third goal of the game.

“We were lazy coming back into our own end. We lost a lot of battles and forced a lot of pucks,” Gosek said.

All three goaltenders each got a period of action for the second game in a row, with David Richer playing the first period, Cedric Hansen taking the second and Kozikoski playing the third period.

Richer made all four saves he faced in the first 20 minutes, including a breakaway chance. Hansen allowed one goal on 10 shots and Kozikoski stopped five shots but allowed two goals.

Gosek said he though Hansen did not track the puck as well as he did last week, but had not seen enough video of the goal to fault him for the late goal in the second period.

“Richer stops the breakaway in the first. Maybe that was his only tough save, but he makes that save or it’s a 2-1 game coming in after the first,” Gosek said. “They’re all working hard. They’re working to improve.”

Notably out of the lineup were captain Josh Zizek, alternate captain Anthony Passero, junior Tanner Spink and transfer junior Carson Vance. Gosek said that Zizek and Passero were scratched due to a violation of team rules, and Spink was out due to injury.

Vance, according to Gosek, is still waiting to be cleared by the NCAA after transferring from Div. I Western Michigan University.

“Not a big deal, but big enough where the rules are rules,” Gosek said. “We learn from it and move on. If we’re going to be successful, we have to have it throughout the year.”

With the two exhibition games over, Oswego State now will officially start the regular season on Monday, with its first league game on Nov. 1 against SUNY Cortland at the Marano Campus Center.

Gosek said the team has a lot to improve on, including how the team transitions from defense to offense—needing to “come up as a unit of five”—instead of two forwards just entering the zone. He also mentioned not “cheating the game” by “waiting in the offensive zone.”

“This will be a good learning lesson for us with video and to have a good, hard-working week of practice and to have ourselves prepared,” Gosek said. “We’ve got to be better come next Friday night.”

Photo by Ben Grieco | The Oswegonian