In the last nine games for the Oswego State men’s hockey team, the Lakers have boasted a 7-1-1 record only falling to nationally-ranked SUNY Geneseo and tying a tough The College at Brockport team.

Ten games ago, Oswego State fell in a tough overtime loss to SUNY Cortland—a team that has been since eliminated from the SUNYAC playoffs—on Jan. 24. While the first game against SUNY Geneseo, a 9-1 loss in November, was considered a turning point for the Lakers, the loss to the Red Dragons took the season for another turn. At that point, it became the players’ team.

“That was the point of the season where our players took ownership,” Oswego State head coach Ed Gosek said. “That was the turning point of our year as far as the players buying into it.”

A day after the loss to SUNY Cortland, the Lakers had a break from league action with a game against SUNY Canton, a team that Oswego State had not lost to since 1972. Defenseman Carter Allen said they “just needed to win games and needed to play better.” 

During the pre-game skate before the game against the Kangaroos, Gosek and the rest of the coaching staff told the team they had “a big announcement to make.” That is when it was announced that sophomore Steven Kozikoski would start his first collegiate game.

“Usually we tell the goalies separately. But, we spruced it up a little and told the whole team together,” Gosek said. “They all went crazy and they were happy for him.”

Kozikoski said he did not have any inclination that he would be starting against SUNY Canton. He mentioned that the coaches usually tell the goaltenders the night before who is starting, but when the announcement was delayed, he “wasn’t thinking anything of it.” Allen said putting Kozikoski in net “initially was a bit of a wake-up call.”

“I was just going into my normal day. I got a couple stick-taps before practice,” Kozikoski said. “It was definitely surprising for sure.”

Kozikoski won the first game against the Roos, and the Lakers pulled off an 8-2 victory. Gosek added that the change “lifted the spirits of the team at the appropriate time.”

“It’s not always how you win. It’s the factors of how the team played in front of him,” Gosek said. “He made some good saves against Canton. He wasn’t tested a lot, but he made the saves that he had to.”

The win was followed by a weekend sweep of the North Country teams, with a 4-2 win over Plattsburgh State and a 5-1 victory against SUNY Potsdam. The sophomore had a win-streak going for himself. 

The win over the Cardinals was surely impressive, as the Lakers beat their top rival on the road. The Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena, where the Cardinals play, is full of history and is “a tough environment with the pressure on,” Gosek said. 

The next weekend was even tougher. Kozikoski faced his first big test with games against The College at Brockport and SUNY Geneseo, a weekend that ended in a 0-1-1 record.

“Geneseo was a big one for me,” Kozikoski said. “It wasn’t the outcome that we wanted, or the outcome I wanted. [But] now that I’ve played them, I was able to get that out of the way and get those jitters out of the way. I feel a lot more comfortable in net.”

In the last nine games, Gosek has mentioned a change in the way the defense has played, adding “it’s all about defense in the offensive zone, neutral zone and their own defensive zone” during practices. Gosek also said “a big part of it was the change that Kozikoski brought to the attitude, the effort and the willingness to block shots” from the skaters in front of him.

“There’s more positives on the video after this past weekend [against Buffalo State and SUNY Fredonia] than we had the entire first part of the season,” Gosek said.

Kozikoski was not the only major difference in how Oswego State’s season took a turn. The defense has been creating turnovers and getting it out of the zone, “instead of opposing players picking it up and maintaining zone time.”

Oswego State has a 1.65 goals against average in those nine games, as well as a combined save percentage of .929. Two numbers that Gosek shoots for every season, and mentions at every pre-season press conference.

“I know that our defense’s life has become a little bit easier because our forwards are working harder to support and back pressure [opposing teams],” Gosek said. “It all goes hand-in-hand. Our players have been buying into what we’ve been preaching.”

Practices have also shifted to a defensive focus, and the “numbers have improved over the last nine games,” Kozikoski said, making a “testament to the team.”

“We’ve been way more defensive based and that’s what we’re stressing out there in practice,” Kozikoski said. “We’re focusing on our defense, our penalty kill and our power play.”

With SUNYACs looming for Oswego State and the semifinals coming up, it is a whole different challenge for Kozikoski. For him, he said it is a little unusual, since his playoffs before college “weren’t in front of 3,000 people, maybe 500 at most.” But he is making sure to play for the 13 seniors on the team.

“Even going in for his very first game, it’s a lot of pressure,” Gosek said. “He’s had enough high-pressure games—the Geneseo game, the Plattsburgh game, the Brockport game—he’s more than prepared and ready.” 

Photo by Nicole Hube | The Oswegonian