By Jack Perdek

Fresh off a back and forth weekend for the Oswego State Lakers, the men’s hockey team now find themselves with a 4-0 win against Morrisville State and a week off before their regular season finale.

Now having defeated the Brockport Golden Eagles and Morrisville State Mustangs, the Lakers are now temporarily sitting in first place in the SUNYAC, assuming SUNY Geneseo does not get upset in their remaining games. The first and second place teams in the conference clashed on Feb. 5. Where the Lakers gave the Knights three goals in the remaining six minutes of the first period, ultimately giving their rival the victory. 

Head coach Ed Gosek relayed that match in Western N.Y. as a sloppy affair in the beginning and a plethora of mental mistakes.

“I thought we were okay to start the game, not great,” Gosek said. “They came out the way we expected after a loss. They were hungry, aggressive and angry they felt they had something to prove. I thought the first eight minutes we treaded water and hung in there, but we can’t have a turnover along the wall like we did, we have to puck protect better, another turnover for their second goal, it’s a killer and you can’t have mental lapses like that. You cannot call a timeout everytime something bad happens.” 

In the second and third periods against SUNY Geneseo, the Lakers were able to regain their confidence and put two goals on the board. Despite their late efforts the Knights took the contest 4-2. Gosek admired the team’s perseverance towards the end and saw this game as an opportunity to improve.

“We have to be better,” Gosek said. “We gained some momentum, gained some confidence and we’re still trying to get better each and every game. Even though it wasn’t the outcome we wanted, for two periods we played much better than we did last time when we were home. I think long term if we get the opportunity to play them again I think we’ll be more prepared and our confidence level will get higher.”

Last November SUNY Geneseo picked apart the Laker defense putting up six goals in the Deborah F. Stanley Arena. Now this time Steven Kozikoski only let up four past the net. Gosek has seen what the senior goaltender can accomplish on the ice and described last weekend’s games as a hiccup.

“We have to get Koz back to the way he was playing,” Gosek said. “He had some poor angle goals on on Friday and Saturday. Quite frankly in the playoffs he’s gotta be better than that and we gotta be better as a team. It’s a combination of tracking the puck, getting out of the net, skating back into the crease and controlling rebounds. It’s not just the goals that go in, it’s losing sight and control of rebounds. It’s uncharacteristic of him, we gotta get him back to his play level.” 

Gosek’s goalie and skaters did just that as the Lakers swept Morrisville State in the regular season with Kozikoski’s fourth shutout of the season winning 4-0 against the Mustangs Feb. 9. Defensive consistency has been something this team has been starving for perfection all season and defenseman Quinn Warmuth envisions them to get even better on that side of the red line. In light of their big game at SUNY Geneseo, Warmuth said that the team retaliated after the first period and gained some major momentum.

“I think moving into the second and third period we started playing confident and to our strengths,” Warmuth said. “I’d say that the second half of the season we have been playing more of the type of hockey we’ve wanted to play. I think it showed that against a strong team like Geneseo that a couple of lapses can lead to goals but I think in the second and third period we got it together with just too little too late. Otherwise I think there are positives from that game.”

Now that the Lakers are finished with their top ranked opponents of the season, they can now focus on taking care of securing their playoff spot. Having just clinched a berth to the SUNYAC playoffs, Warmuth and his team have started to gel as a unit and are looking to get even better in their last two games.

“We’re getting contributions from all four of our lines and [defense] right now,” Warmuth said. “I think everyone has a role to play and we are working out the growing pains from the beginning of the year. I think in this second stretch of the season we’ve come together and have found what our identity is going to be for sure.” 

Warmuth also noted the significance of not staying complacent and finishing strong because they know that their season is long from over.

“It’s huge, our only focus is taking care of business,” Warmuth said. “We’ll take a few days off to rest and recover and hit the final stretch of the season hard. These last six points are crucial for us and we expect nothing less.” 

The Lakers sit strong in the conference with 11 conference wins and two more games on the lineup at Buffalo State and SUNY Fredonia. The team has one more game played than SUNY Geneseo giving them the first seed until they catch up. Oswego State can hope for a Knights loss but in the meantime will have to grab six more points against the seventh and sixth place teams in the division. They also have a No. 11 ranking going for them as they gave Geneseo a decent game along with the rest of their games this season. Gosek touched on how all of their losses are against the best teams in the country.

“We have five losses to the teams that are ranked in the top 5 top 10. Hobart [and] Elmira were earlier in the year, they played last year and that made a big difference. Augsburg was one of our best looks as well and I feel we had the most grade A’s against them than any of those teams,” Gosek said. “Then we played [Geneseo] twice, we imploded in the first period with turnovers and mistakes, still not where we needed to be. If you wanna be the best you need to beat the best teams. You play better teams and you will get better. It’s one game, it was important, the bigger one will be the finals if we can get that far.” 

The Lakers will return to action Feb. 18 in Fredonia, N.Y. ending their regulr season before their inevitable home playoff game

Photos provided by Jim Gemza