The Oswego Buccaneers boy’s hockey team defeated the Watertown IHC Cavaliers by a final score of 6-1 in its final game of the season on Saturday night. After the Bucs collapsed against the Cazenovia Lakers last night, head coach Kevin Ahern preached that his boys stepped up to the challenge tonight following senior night.

“The way these guys stepped up and handled themselves game in and game out,” Ahern said. “[It shows] a ton of class to come back and bounce back after such a heartbreak last night.”

Junior Brayden Miller stole the show tonight, netting three goals in the first period for a natural hat trick, and then one more in the second. His first goal came 3:58 into the contest, then another six minutes later and a third to cap off the period just 55 seconds after his second. The score after one period of play was 3-0 Oswego.

Ahern has praised his talents over the past few nights, and Miller has lived up to that praise as thw four-goal night was only “a glimpse” of what Ahern said is in store for the rest of his career.

“I honestly think that is just a glimpse of what he has in store for himself,” Ahern said. “He has got such a work ethic, I just see him improving. We are very excited about him.”

Junior Lukas Cady opened up the scoring in the second period with a short-handed goal for the Bucs with 10:32 left in the second to make it 4-0. With just over seven minutes left in the second, junior Marcus Baker ripped a shot that was stopped by Watertown’s netminder, Colton Young, but found its way to the stick of Miller who slotted it home. Miller’s fourth goal of the night made it 5-0 Bucs.

Although the puck was finding the twine for the Bucs tonight, their troubles with penalties continued. With nine penalties in the game, three more than IHC, and six alone in the second period, it was another night of constant penalty killing for Oswego. 

“I was preaching to them,” Ahern said. “I said ‘How much fun is it killing penalties, fellas? Let’s just stay out of the box … Let’s go out and have a clean third period.’ That didn’t work out but that is definitely always a focus of ours, to stay out of the box.”

Just one goal was scored by the Cavaliers which came on a power play following a hooking call on senior Joe DiBlasi with 6:18 to play in the second period. The goal was credited to Garrett Hudon with 5:44 remaining in the second, which made it 5-1. This was the only penalty they failed to kill for the rest of the night. 

Watertown had done virtually everything in its power to keep the game close and get a goal back, starting with a goalie change as it brought it in Tyler Friedline.

In an effort to close the scoring gap, the Cavaliers pulled their goalies on many occasions throughout the contest after falling behind 5-0. Once on a six-on-three advantage to end the second period and a few times in the third with a six-on-four advantage. All the attempts came up empty. 

Senior Adam Michalski scored the final goal, a short-handed one, with 3:48 left in the game to cap off a 6-1 Buccaneer win. Michalski scored his 17th goal of his career via an empty net, as the Cavaliers tried their hand with a two-man advantage. Michalski will finish his Oswego career with 44 points.

The Oswego Buccaneers finished the season on a strong note with an 8-8 record to end a hectic and hard-fought season but not without bittersweet feelings. Ahern added that even though they were not able to continue on and play in a tournament, just being able to play hockey this season was enough.

“It is unfortunate as we look at some of the other sections that were able to set up a small little tournament at the end [of their seasons],” Ahern said. “But the people that were making the decisions [for us] are great people, and they made the best decision at the time. Yes, we would have loved [a tournament], but we got a season in so we are happy.”

Ben Grieco | The Oswegonian