The Oswego State Men’s ACHA D1 hockey team celebrated the end of their season at their annual team dinner at Tavern on the Lock Restaurant in Fulton last month. The Tavern on the Lock has been a generous sponsor of the team for many years.

Besides celebrating the Oswego careers of the graduating seniors, individual awards were handed out after the dinner. Three of the awards are voted on by the players on the team- most valuable player, rookie of the year and most improved player. The Oswego rookie of the year was freshman George Scouras, the most improved player was awarded to sophomore Richie Santini and the most valuable player was senior goaltender Aaron Frohm, who was also the NECHL Player of the Year. Club president Mike Renick received the President’s award and the coach’s award was given to senior Justin Smith.

After the dinner the seniors were presented with their senior gift, a Seiko watch which is custom made with the team’s logo on its face.

The players also voted for new club officers for next year- Matt Brady was elected president, Bobby Drexler is vice president, Dylan Niewiemski is treasurer and Karl Backhaus is club secretary. Off ice personnel who also contribute to the team are Dan Eye and Nick Wojton who broadcast our games live over the web and our game announcer, Rob Chmiel.

The Lakers had 9 seniors on this team and, while we will miss them next year, we wish them well in their chosen careers. We are proud of the fact that our team has a 100% graduation rate.

The Lakers are a D1 ACHA team and a member of the NECHL. They are sponsored by the Student Association of Oswego State University, Tavern on the Lock Restaurant, Bags for Sports, Hockey Stop and Damn Good T-Shirts. The team website, which is managed by player Chris LoBosco, is www.oswego.edu/icehockey.

We would also like to congratulate our fellow Laker hockey players on the NCAA D3 team for their successful season and wish their 14 seniors the best in their futures.

Our future looks very bright. We have had many inquires about our program from prospective players. Of those inquiries, 24 have been accepted to Oswego State so far. Although we will miss our seniors, we are looking toward the future with great anticipation.

Sincerely,

Jay Peacock, Head Coach

Adam Webster, Assistant Coach

Bruce Zellar, Faculty Advisor

The 2012-2013 Oswego State Men’s ACHA D1 Hockey Team

The Oswego State men’s club ice hockey team defeated the RIT Tigers on Feb. 9 by a score of 4-1, snapping a four-game losing skid and securing a playoff spot in the NECHL playoffs in the process.

In the previous four games leading up to the contest with RIT, goaltender Aaron Frohm needed to, and certainly did, come up big for the Lakers. Despite facing 29 shots from the Tigers, Frohm had a significantly easier night because of a good defensive showing in front of him.

“Our game showed our guys we can dominate,” Oswego State head coach Jay Peacock said.

Offensively, the Lakers struck first on a power play in the first period when Matt Potrzeba fired a shot from the point that caused RIT goaltender Brian Jascur to leave a big rebound for D.J. Mazzoni to jump on, giving Oswego the 1-0 lead. RIT’s lone goal came just moments into the second period when Brendan Domos took a shot through traffic that found the back of the net.

The rest of the second period would remain scoreless but certainly wouldn’t finish without action. The physical contest saw big hits throughout but reached a boiling point when Greg Molfese got into an altercation with Jeff Burrell of RIT. The two players threw several punches and wrestled to the ground before the referees separated the two. Both players were ejected from the game. Richie Santani also took a major penalty for the Lakers when he tripped up an RIT player in the corner and he fell awkwardly into the boards. Even though the Lakers received a five minute penalty to kill off, they escaped it without harm.

“Our defense played really strong,” Peacock said. “We’ve tried to keep teams away from the middle of the ice.”

Despite the strong efforts by outshooting RIT in the first two periods, the Lakers entered the third period still even with the Tigers. Peacock said he gave his team a stern talking to during the second intermission about the lack of goals and the Lakers would only take a few moments into the third period to respond. Laker captain Chris Timmons put in what would be the game-winning goal moments into the third, then Bobby Drexler added an insurance goal giving the Lakers a two-goal lead. Matt Potrzeba would add an empty net goal from his own end as time expired to give the Lakers the 4-1 victory.

With Mazzoni and Timmons scoring, Peacock said he was glad his top line were able to get on the score sheet again. While keeping his top line in place, Peacock shuffled his other lines around and said he was pleased with the results.
“I think the guys responded well,” he said.

The Lakers were also scheduled to face Syracuse University the same weekend but because of the winter storm “Nemo,” Peacock chose to cancel the game.

“I was in contact with some of the parents from the Rochester area where the storm was coming from and decided it wouldn’t be safe,” Peacock said.

Due to the cancellation, the Lakers now play away at Syracuse this upcoming Saturday night, in between games already scheduled home games against Niagara at 7 p.m. Friday and the season finale and senior night against Mercyhurst in the Laker Cup on Sunday at 2 p.m.