The Oswego State women’s hockey team ended their regular season with two wins against the SUNY Buffalo Bengals, closing the season with an overall record of 14-10-1. 

The Lakers began the two-game series heading out to Buffalo on Feb. 16. 

To start the matchup, the Bengals found themselves on the power play from a holding penalty drawn on Lakers’ defenseman Myah Booth at 3:32. After returning to full strength, the Lakers had multiple opportunities to find the back of the net but had no such luck. While both teams tried multiple times to score before the end of the first period, it ended with a score of 0-0. 

Only 35 seconds into the second period, Booth found herself spending time again in the sin bin. Bengals defenseman Lilli Adimey and Quinn Murray tried to score while on the power play, but could not make it past the Lakers’ defense. Not too long after the Bengals’ power play, the Lakers found themselves on a power play of their own at 4:41 after a tripping call on Grace Zwolak. Shortly after getting off the power play, at 8:36, Helen Vandamme put the puck top shelf off a pass from Rylee Preston, putting the Lakers in the lead with a 1-0 score. 

The Lakers started the final period off strong as Mack Hull successfully shot the puck into the net off an assist from Lauren Schell and Leah Coley at 1:22, putting the Lakers up by two points. Both teams played equal amounts of offense for the remainder of the game, but neither team managed to put up a point on the scoreboard. As a result, the Lakers took a shutout win of 2-0 against the Bengals. 

The fun did not end, as the Lakers quickly returned to the Bengals’ ice in their second matchup for the weekend on Feb. 17 and their last matchup of the regular season. 

Coming off the big win from the night before, the Lakers were eager to score the first goal of this matchup, making multiple attempts to do so in the first half. At 12:18, an assist off Rachel Corbett and Preston gave Kensie Malone the opportunity to find the back of the net and score the first goal for the Lakers. Although the Lakers worked hard to keep the puck out of their defensive zone and prevented the Bengals from earning a point in the first period, they did not score for the rest of the first period, finishing the period with a score of 1-0. 

At the start of the second period, each team made multiple attempts to add a point for themselves while also holding a strong defense. At 10:29, Hull managed her second goal of the game off an assist by Sophia Kyrkostas and Rheya Zemlak. After the goal made by Hull, at 15:54 Coley capitalized on the Lakers’ power play, adding another point for them, with the score now at 3-0. Only minutes later at 17:13, Kyrkostas took advantage of another Lakers power play, adding one more point for them, which ended with the Lakers dominating the Bengals once again in a 4-0 lead to end the second period. 

Heading into the final period, the Bengals only added one point for themselves throughout the entire game when Miya Silva shot the puck into the net unassisted at 17:13 and the Lakers took the win again in a score of 4-1.

With that being their last game of the season, the Lakers will now travel to Cortland to face the SUNY Cortland Red Dragons in the first round of the SUNYAC playoffs on Saturday, Feb. 24. The Lakers stand in third place in the SUNYAC, with an in-conference record of 12-5-1. The Red Dragons finished their season with a 13-4-1 record in-conference, ranking no.2 in the SUNYAC.

Photo by: Oswego Athletics