A season of adversity, challenges and triumph all ended at the Ira S. Wilson Ice Arena on Saturday night after a 4-1 loss for the Oswego State men’s hockey team.

It was the same arena that, arguably, started the adversity. A 9-1 loss to SUNY Geneseo on Nov. 16 sent the Oswego State’s season for a whirl. That game was followed by two more losses, then losing the Pathfinder Bank/Oswego State Hockey Classic in early January.

Off-ice situations came about that made for tough personal times for some players. Those players came back and fought to continue their season as long as possible.

Roster changes, especially in goal, were constantly happening all season; if a player was on the ice on any given Friday, it did not mean they were on the ice Saturday.

But then offensive units started clicking. Steven Kozikoski took charge of the net as a sophomore. Players like Michael Gillespie and Alex DiCarlo started to find the back of the net. A lot. In the last 10 games, the Lakers had gone 8-1-1.

And that is what made the 2019-2020 season—which is now over for Oswego State—unique.

“We’ve come a long way, especially the last half of the season,” Oswego State head coach Ed Gosek said. “The adversity that they faced on the ice, off the ice, personally; in that way, they were a special group.”

It was not always SUNY Geneseo’s game. Oswego State was in it. While the Knights scored only 1:33 into the opening period, getting a goal after some chaos up front, with the goal from Matthew Doran.

After a couple penalties sending the game to four-on-four hockey, Josh Zizek tied the game up at 11:39 of the first period. He deflected the shot that came from Carter Allen. Carson Vance was given the secondary assist.

The team had a lot more quality chances that just could not get past Aaron MacKay, who only had to make 20 saves in the game to secure the win.

“I thought we played extremely well for the first period and a half,” Gosek said. “The guys executed other than finishing. In games like this, when you have those opportunities, you have to capitalize.”

SUNY Geneseo would put the daggers in during the second period, with Brendan Miller scoring at 11:06 followed by David Szmyd at 16:15. Gosek said he was hoping the team would score “just one,” to be in the scenario of only being down by one.

The empty-net goal, with just 8.9 seconds left in the game, “officially” sealed the game for the Knights, en route to their third straight SUNYAC Championship.

But not everything was a loss for Oswego State, according to Gosek. Quality chances were thrown on net and Kozikoski “tracked the puck well” during the game.

“Certainly wasn’t an issue an issue of goaltending. Could he have stood on his head? Sure. But we can’t expect him to,” Gosek said. “He made some good saves tonight.”

With no possibility of an at-large bid this season to go to the NCAA tournament, the season is now over for the Lakers. Now, the eyes move to next season. That includes recruiting new Lakers to replace the large senior class that is set to graduate in May.

For the 13 seniors that the roster boasts, their collegiate careers are now done. As the great saying goes, “That’s all she wrote.”

“It’s a bitter disappointment, not because we lost but because of the friendships that they’ve made over the four years. All of them have come a long way,” Gosek said. “We’ll take some time here to relax and evaluate everything and gear back up for October. … It’s all about trying to get better.”

Photo by Ben Grieco | The Oswegonian