Oswego Men Dominate SUNYAC Post-Season Awards

The State University of New York Athletic Conference released its 2009-10 Post-Season Men’s Ice Hockey awards on Wednesday and Oswego State garnered the majority of the awards. Sophomore forward Eric Selleck (pictured)  was named the Herb Hammond Most Valuable Player, freshman forward Jon Whitelaw was named Rookie of the Year, and Ed Gosek was selected as the Coach of the Year. Three players received First Team All-Conference recognition including junior forward Chris Laganiere, junior defenseman Stephen Mallaro, and Selleck, while senior forward Neil Musselwhite was named to the Second Team.


In addition, senior defenseman Tyler Lyon and senior goaltender Kyle Gunn-Taylor received honorable mention All-Conference honors.  After finishing the SUNYAC regular season with a record of 15-1-0, the Lakers, who are 23-2-0 overall, earned the top seed in the conference post-season tournament.
Eric Selleck, a native of Spencerville, Ontario, led the league in the majority of offensive categories including points (39), assists (25), goals (14), power play points (14).  He was tied for the league-lead in goals scored at 14.  Last year’s SUNYAC Rookie of the Year was named SUNYAC Player of the Week on November 9 and December 14.  Selleck is the second player in conference history to receive both SUNYAC MVP and Rookie of the Year honors following Oswego State’s Ryan Ellis and is the first to accomplish this in consecutive seasons. 

Chris Laganiere, an Owego, N.Y. native, led the conference with four game-winning goals and ranked second in the conference at 30 points.  He tied Selleck for a league-best 14 goals and was tied for first in power play goals at six.  Laganiere also ranked second in power play points at 11 and fourth in assists at 16.

Stephen Mallaro (right), a defenseman from Syracuse, N.Y., was fourth among conference defensemen in scoring with 11 points on four goals and seven assists.  He also posted three game-winning goals for Oswego State.

Assistant captain Neil Musselwhite led the conference with four short-handed goals and was tied for third in the league with 11 goals.  The Burlington, Ontario native was selected as the SUNYAC Player of the Week on December 7 and January 11.  He became the ninth player in NCAA history to tally a short-handed natural hat trick on December 4 against Brockport. 

Jon Whitelaw (right), a forward from Hunstville, Ontario, led all league rookies with 22 points on eight goals and 14 assists and was fourth among all players with nine power play points.  Whitelaw was named the SUNYAC Player of the Week on February 1 and was a three-time SUNYAC Rookie of the Week selection.  He is the ninth Laker to be selected as Rookie of the Year and the seventh since the 2000-01 season. 



Captain Tyler Lyon (left), who hails from Foxboro, Ontario, anchored a defense that allowed the fewest goals in the league at 1.75 goals per game, and helped set up the offense for the top-scoring squad in the SUNYAC at 5.44 goals per game.  Lyon, who started all 16 conference games this season, was also a key figure in the Laker penalty kill.

Kyle Gunn-Taylor, an honorable mention selection, registered a conference record of 11-1-0 and posted a 1.69 goals against average, which was second among SUNYAC goalies, and a .927 save percentage.  The West Seneca, N.Y. native was also chosen as the SUNYAC Goaltender of the Week three times during the season.

Head Coach Ed Gosek (left) was chosen as the SUNYAC Coach of the Year for the second time in his seven-year tenure. Gosek led Oswego State to its first No. 1 seed in the SUNYAC Post-Season Tournament since 2003 despite 15 newcomers on the team.  His squad finished the season atop every conference team statistical category including scoring offense (5.44 goals per game), scoring defense (1.75 goals per game), power play efficiency (28.1 percent), and penalty kill (86.8 percent).  Gosek was named Coach of the Year for the 2004-05 season.

The Lakers start post-season play on Saturday when they face Morrisville at 7 p.m. in the semifinal round of the SUNYAC Playoffs.The game will be broadcasted live on Time Warner Cable Sports, WTOP-10, and on the radio on WNYO-FM 88.9.

Courtesy of Oswego State Sports Information

Lakers Continue Winning Ways With Blowout of Morrisville

The Oswego State Lakers contined their winning ways last night infront of 2600 + at the Campus Center Ice Arena as Oswego punnished SUNYAC foe Morrisville 8-1. The win gives Oswego their eighth victory of the season and also gives the Lakers a perfect 6-0 in SUNYAC play to this point in the season.

Morrisville (3-5-0, 2-4-0 in SUNYAC) got the scoring started 12 minutes into the opening period as Dana Calderone scored his second of the season with the assist going to Andrew Alarie. Morrisville outworked, outplayed and out husseled Oswego during the first twenty minutes, outshooting the Lakers 8-7 in the first.                                                       

A tale of two periods occured in the second as the Lakers got their legs moving and that got the offense going as it didnt

even take two minutes into the second as rookie Tyler Leimbrock scored his second of the year with the assists going to Alternate Captains Brad Dormeidy and Neil Musselwhite. Then Oswego gained the lead as Owego, NY native Chris Laganiere scored his seventh of the year with linemates Justin Fox and Eric Selleck getting the assists. Three minutes later, the Lakers would grab a 3-1 lead on the Power Play with a goal scored by Jon Whitelaw with Stephen Mallaro and Laganiere getting the helpers. The scoring didnt stop in the middle frame as Oswego tacked on one more before the end of the period Luke Moodie scored his third on the year with Paul Rodrigues getting the lone assist at 17:22. Oswego outshot the Mustangs of Morrisville 16-4 in the second period and 23-12 after 40 minutes.

The third period started the same way the second ended as Captain Tyler Lyon scored just 19 seconds in with Musslewhite and Dormeidy getting their second helpers on the night. Then the game would become the Chris Laganiere show as Laganiere would score his eighth  of the season with Fox and Whitelaw getting the assists at 6:27. Then Laganiere would get the hat trick just three minutes later on the power play for his second consecuative PPG with linemates Fox and Selleck getting the assists. Then Eric Selleck would cap the scoring for Oswego as he would strip the puck at center ice and head in on a breakaway and would beat goaltender Mike Will at 13:12. The line of Laganiere, Selleck, and Fox finished the night with 10 points on four goals and six assists. Final shots were 36-23 in favor of the second ranked Oswego State Lakers.

Laker netminder Kyle Gunn-Taylor improved to 5-0-0 on the season as he stopped 22 shots and allowed one goal. Morrisville goaltender Caylin Relkoff made 25 saves on 32 shots before Mike Will came into the game to record three saves and allow one goal. Oswego returns to the ice on December 4th as they take on SUNYAC opponent Brockport and then the following night, the Geneseo Ice Knights come into the Campus Center and challenge the Lakers. Face-off for both nights will be at 7:00 pm. You can listen to the games live on WNYO 88.9 FM Oswego or you can watch the game on WTOP-TV 10 on campus or Cable Access 96. You can also follow the game with live stats live on the Oswego State Athletics Page.

Top Photo: Courtesy of Oswego State Athletic Dept.

Bottom Photo: Courtesy of Jared Crast

Oswego Sweeps SUNYAC Weekly Awards

The State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) announced their weekly awards and recieving them are all apart of the Oswego State Lakers. The Lakers (4-0 in Conference, 5-1 overall) swept the first two weekends of their SUNYAC schedule against the two Western New York Teams (Buffalo State, Fredonia) and the sweep of the North Country against Potsdam and arch-rival Plattsburgh. Oswego started the weekend in the North Country with a convincing 8-1 win over the Potsdam Bears. The following night saw the Lakers in the Ronald B Stafford Ice Arena to take on the defending SUNYAC Champion Plattsburgh Cardinals. For the first time since November 11, 2005, Oswego came into Plattsburgh and knocked-off the Cardinals by the score of 5-2.

Eric Selleck was named SUNYAC Player of the Week for his three goal, four assist performance this past weekend.
Kyle Gunn-Taylor was named conference goaltender of the week as he picked up a pair of victories in his first action as a Laker. Gunn-Taylor stopped 56 of the 59 shots he saw while filling in for starter Paul Beckwith, who stayed in Central New York  over the weekend with an illness. Freshman Jon Whitelaw tallied his first three collegiate goals during the road trip and also recorded an assist. Two of his goals came in Saturday's 5-2 victory over Plattsburgh, which snapped a 10-game winless streak in the rivalry series for the Lakers.

Next weekend sees the Lakers head off to Cortland on Friday night to continue their winning ways in the SUNYAC standings. Saturday night sees Oswego back at the Campus Center Ice Arena to play host to the Utica Pioneers.