Men's Hockey Rises; Lakers Earn Conference Accolades

The Oswego State men's ice hockey team has moved from 14th to 13th in the latest USCHO national poll. St. Norbert overtook Elmira for the nation's top spot. Poll here

Laker winger Ryan Ellis (pictured) has been named the SUNYAC player of the week. Ellis had an eight-point weekend against Geneseo and Brockport, with a hat trick against the latter. He leads the conference in scoring.

The ECAC West has named Lakers forward Jessica Lister player of the week and Erica Shapey rookie of the week. Lister had two goals and two assists in two games against Cortland. Shapey had three assists in each of those contests.

Sophomore goaltender Hilary Hitchman earned conference honor roll mention. She stopped 40 of the 42 shots she faced from the Red Dragons over the weekend and earned her second shutout of the season.

Women's Hockey Wins 3rd Straight

The Oswego State women's ice hockey team won 5-2 at Cortland on Sunday afternoon, completing an ECAC Women's West weekend sweep of the Red Dragons.

Gillian Toneguzzo scored two goals in the game and added an assist for the Lakers, who are now 8-10-1 on the season and have won five of their last six games. Oswego State is 3-7-0 in ECAC Women's West play. Toneguzzo opened the scoring in the first period and Jessica Lister (pictured) scored three minutes later to give the Lakers a 2-0 lead.Cortland scored in the second period, but the Lakers answered with goals from Toneguzzo and Tiffany Duquette to build a three-goal lead.

Sarah Hannon scored in the third period for Oswego State on assists from Emily Grippin and Angie Friesen. Erica Shapey had three assists for the second consecutive game, and Hilary Hitchman made 25 saves. The Lakers return home to the Campus Center Ice Arena for a pair of ECAC Women's West contests against Utica on Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m.

Women's Hockey Earns 1st Conference Win

The Oswego State women's ice hockey team began their climb up the ECAC West standings with a 3-1 victory over Chatham at the Campus Center Ice Arena. Jessica Lister lit the lamp 34 seconds in off a feed from Erica Shapey and the Lakers never looked back. The marker was Lister's team-leading fifth of the season. Defenceman Erica Rossi also received credit for an assist on the play.

Freshman Brenna Weber recorded her first collegiate goal midway through the first period on a writer from the left-wing faceoff circle. Lister was credited with a helper. That would stand up as the game-winner after Chatham's April Govednik scored her first goal of the season to start the second period.

Govednik's shot would be the only one to slip past Laker netminder Hillary Hitchman. The sophomore stopped 26 shots en route to her fourth win in goal.

"(Hitchman) made some top-end saves, some clutch reaction saves on some tight rebounds where we had breakdowns in defensive zone coverage," said second-year head coach Diane Dillon. "Her game has come along so much. She's playing with a renewed confidence and I think it's clear to see why she's out number one goaltender."

Many of Hitchman's saves came with her team on the penalty kill. The Lakers had 33 penalty minutes on the day, including a five-minute major and game misconduct to Shapey for checking from behind. Dillon questioned the official's decision to send the freshman pivot off, but knew why the call was made.

"I'm afraid that's the way the rule reads. Any hit from behind is an automatic. Was there intent there? No. But it clearly was a hit from behind, so that's an automatic ten."

Oswego State was able to kill off that five-minute penalty and were succesful on 9-of-10 penalty kills for the game. The Lakers imorved to 5-9-1 on the season with the win, 1-6-0 in the ECAC West. Chatham fell to 0-16-0 on the year, 0-9-0 in conference.

Ryan Maloney

NOTES:

• Chatham is now 0-96-1 since joining the ECAC West in 2002 with a conference mark of 0-70-1.
• Coach Dillon said she will start freshman Emi Williams in net tomorrow.
  
• It will be Williams' second start of the season, she was between the pipes in a 2-1 loss at St. Olaf last Jan. 13. She stopped 28 of 30 shots.
  
• She also played the third period of a 9-1 loss to top-ranked Plattsburgh on Nov. 9, stopping 6 of 9 shots.
• Coach Dillon said that sophomore goalie Erin Robson is recovering from "some minor surgery" and will compete for ice time when she returns.
• The Lakers are two wins shy of equaling last season's win total with 10 games left to play.
• Buffalo State lost 5-2 to Utica, bringing the Lakers two points closer to the final ECAC West playoff bid.
• Top-ranked Plattsburgh suffered their first ECAC West loss since Jan. 24, 2004. They lost 5-2 to RIT snapping a 39-game conference unbeaten streak.
  
• It marked their first conference loss at Stafford Arena since Nov. 10, 2001 snapping a 43-game unbeaten streak.
• The Lakers are asking fans to come enjoy an open-skate with the team following Sunday's 3 p.m. contest. Skate rental is free of charge.
  

Cortland scores in 60th minute, tie Lakers

The Oswego State Lakers and Cortland Red Dragons skated to a 1-1 tie Saturday afternoon at the Campus Center Ice Arena. The Lakers led for more than 58 minutes after an early goal from Jessica Lister. The Red Dragons lit the lamp in the 60th minute for the tie.

More to come...

6:25 left to play; Lakers 1 Cortland 0

Game Summary

• Hilary Hitchman 18 saves
• Jessica Lister goal at 0:30
• Her second on the season
• Teams are a combined 0-7 on the power play
  

Defending Champ Plattsburgh Steamrolls Laker Women

The top-ranked and defending national champion Plattsburgh Cardinals scored three goals in each period and defeated Oswego State 9-1 in an ECAC Women's West ice hockey game at the Campus Center Ice Arena on Friday night in Oswego.

Danielle Blanchard, Stephanie Moberg, and Megan DiJulio each scored twice for Plattsburgh in the contest. The victory improved Plattsburgh's record to 3-0-0 on the season, and they are 3-0-0 in the conference. Oswego State is now 2-3-0 overall and 0-3-0 in the ECAC Women's West.

The Cardinals opened the scoring with 13:39 left in the first period on a short-handed goal by Jessica Blanchard, and then tallied again with 10:16 left on Moberg's first of the game to make it 2-0.

Oswego State's Jessica Lister took advantage of a turnover immediately following Plattsburgh's second goal but her shot rang off the left post and stayed out. The Cardinals then scored again later in the first and added three more in the second, all of which were scored in special-teams situation. Moberg scored short-handed, and Laurie Bowler and Amber Ellis added power-play goals.

Laker goalie Hilary Hitchman made 33 saves through two periods, and made way for Emi Williams, who made her collegiate debut and played the third period, making six saves on nine shots.

The Laker goal came with 15:15 left in the third period, as Lister took a centering pass from Erica Shapey and slid a backhand shot between the pads of Plattsburgh goalie Danielle Beattie.

Shay Bywater, Blanchard, and DiJulio scored in the third for the Cardinals. Beattie ended the game with 12 saves.

The same two teams meet again on Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Campus Center Ice Arena.

Oswego State Sports Information