Oswego Sits On Top of Latest USCHO Poll, But Not By Themselves

The Oswego State Lakers were awarded with three consecuative victories and with a loss by St. Norbert over the Thanksgiving holiday, the Lakers are the number one ranked team in the nation, according to the latest USCHO D-III Polls. The polls, which were released Monday afternoon, has Oswego State first, but in a tie with the arch-rival Plattsburgh Cardinals. Plattsburgh came off this weekend with a win and a tie while the Lakers sat idle after a 8-1 win over Morrisville.
The Cardinals and the Lakers both have 282 points, however Plattsburgh recieved more first place votes than Oswego. The two teams met in early November up at the Stafford Ice Arena in Plattsburgh and the Lakers skated away with the 5-2 win. The rivalry will continue with the annual Whiteout game in Oswego on January 30th.

From the Fanside of Steve Petty

This will be a first of many of what I call "From the Fanside". This will be a weekend review of the teams that I cover on the Steve Petty Sports site. Lets get right to it shall we?

First off...A great weekend for Oswego State Hockey as both the Women and Men came out and picked up wins against Buffalo State and Morrisville. The Women's hockey team defeated Buff State on Saturday by the score of 3-2. Team Captain Angie Friesen, sophomore Kelly Collins and fellow sophomore Jillian Bergeron scored the goals for the Lakers. On Saturday night ,the men took to the ice of the Campus Center and came out with a 8-1 win over SUNYAC foe Morrisville. Chris Laganiere scored a Hat Trick to lead the Lakers to thier 6th win on the season in SUNYAC play and a 8-1-0 record overall. Sunday afternoon, the women returned to action and competed the two game series sweep of the Buff State Bengals by the score of 3-0. Kendra Lemire and Kelly Collins scored the goals for the Lakers and Emi Williams had the shutout in net.

Off to Foxboro as the New England Patriots come back from losing to Indianapolis with a big 31-14 victory over their bitter rival, the New York Jets. Tom Brady was 28/41 for 310 yards and a touchdown for the Pats while Mark Sanchez was 8/21 for 136, one TD and four interceptions. Wes Welker had 192 yards recieving and Randy Moss caught a TD pass from Brady. The Pats are now 7-3 and have a two game lead over Miami in the AFC East Division while the Jets fall to 4-6. Next games for both teams: The Jets host Carolina while New England heads down to New Orleans to battle the 10-0 Saints on Monday Night Football.

Now lets "shuffle off to Buffalo" and discuss the losing weekend for Buffalo sports. The Bills, within a week of firing coach Dick Jauron, went to Jacksonville and was defeated by the Jags by the score of 18-15. Ryan Fitzpatrick played well and hooked up with T.O. for the longest play in Bills history for a 98 yard TD to give Buffalo the lead. However, the Jags came back and took the lead with less than a minute remaining in regulation. The next possession, Fitzpatrick threw a pick to secure the win for Jacksonville. The Bills host Miami on Sunday before heading North of the Border and the showdown with Mark Sanchez and the Jets at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

The Sabres had a difficult weekend against two strong opponents in the Northeast Division. The Sabres dropped a 2-1 decision in OT to the visiting Boston Bruins on Friday night as Thomas Vanek scored the lone goal for Buffalo. The follwing night, the Sabres went off to Ottawa for a battle with the Senators and the Sens took care of business, defeating Buffalo 5-3. Next game for Buffalo will be on Wednesday night as they head down to our nations capital and take on the Washington Capitals. Next home game will be on Saturday as they take on Oswego native Erik Cole and the Carolina Hurricanes.

Down the road in Rochester, the Amerks came off of a Keaton Ellerby Hat Trick on Friday night as they defeated their Thruway rival Syracuse Crunch by the score of 5-2. Next game for the first place Amerks will be on Tuesday night as they take on the Hamilton Bulldogs at Copps Colliseum. Friday night, they return to the friendly confines of the Blue Cross Arena for a showdown with the Wilkes-Barre Penguins at 7:05.

Thats it for the first installment of the Fanside with Steve Petty. I hope you had fun enjoying the first of what will be many installments.

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

It's Hockey Night in Oswego

Today marks the first doubleheader hockey games of the season as both Oswego State teams take to the ice of the Campus Center Ice Arena.

Game Notes: Buffalo State @ Oswego 3:00 PM ECAC-West

Last Season, Oswego got 3 out of the possible 4 points as they tied 2-2 on November 21st and had a 1-0 victory the very next day. The goals for the 21st contest were scored by Kathryn Sbrocchi and Emily Grippin. The next day, Sarah Hannon scored the game winning goal in OT in the Lakers 1-0 victory over the Bengals. Erin Robson had a 26 save shutout that afternoon in Downtown Buffalo. The last time the Bengals and the Lakers got together on the shores of Lake Ontario was back in 2007-2008 as Buffalo State swept the Lakers at the Campus Center, putting the Lakers out of the ECAC-West Playoffs. The Lakers have not defeated the Bengals in Oswego since Oswego returned to the Women’s Hockey action

Oswego comes into this weekend’s action against the Bengals with a record of 2-3 with a 1-3 record in the ECAC-West Division. The Lakers started strong with a record of 2-0 entering the second game against Potsdam and the Lakers would lose that contest with the Bears by the score of 3-1. Then the losing skid continues as Oswego went to Neumann and was defeated by the Knights by the scores of 4-2 and 3-2 in OT respectfully.

Buffalo State comes into this weekend with a record of 2-3 with a record of 2-1 in the ECAC-West. The Bengals swept Cortland last weekend at the Buffalo State Ice Arena by the score of 3-2 both days.

Key Player Matchup: For Oswego State... Jenna Kirkwood (leads the team with 6 goals), Emily Grippin (1 goal and 4 assists), and Sarah Hannon (1 goal and 4 assists)

For the Buffalo State Bengals... Marissa McMullan (leads the team with 4 points – 2 goals and 2 assists), Lauren Mallo( 2 goals and 1 assist), and Christine Williams (2 goals and 1 assist)

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In the Pipes:  Oswego – Emi Williams (.921 save %, 2.38 GAA, with a record of 2-3 – Started in all 5 games for the Lakers to this point)

Buff State – Alyssa Koniar (.920 save %, 2.94 GAA with a record of 1-1), Jess Garland (.854 save %, 4.49 GAA with a record of 0-2) and Kelly Mendola (.867 save %, 2.00 GAA with a record of 1-0)

Game Notes: Morrisville @ Oswego 7:00 pm SUNYAC

Last Season the Oswego State Lakers and the Morrisville Mustangs had a series to remember, depending on what teams want to remember. Morrisville came into the Campus Center last November and came out of Oswego with a point in conference play as they skated with the number 3 ranked team in the nation at the time by the score of 5-5 with a goal with less than .3 seconds in regulation. Oswego returned the favor in the spring semester as the Lakers went to the Ice Plex and picked up two points in the 3-1 win against the Mustangs.

Oswego comes into tonights game with a record of 7-1 and a perfect 5-0 in SUNYAC play. The Lakers are also the second ranked team in all of the nation. Oswego came off last weekend with two victories over Cortland and Utica. Kyle Gunn-Taylor was in net for both games for Oswego as Paul Beckwith was out due to an illness.

Morrisville comes in being 5th in SUNYAC with a record of 2-3 after dropping 6-4 last night at the hands of the Red Dragons of Cortland.

Both contests will be live on 88.9 FM WNYO "The Voice of Oswego" with Countdown to Faceoff starting at 2:30 this afternoon for the Women's game and at 6:30 before the Men's game at 7:00 pm. 

Cory Bomberry Returns to Rochester... This Time as a Knighthawk... Again

Rochester Knighthawks Owner and General Manager Curt Styres announced today that the team has signed forward Cory Bomberry to a two-year deal. In coming to Rochester, Cory joins his brother, Cam, who was hired as an assistant coach this offseason.


“Cory is a great team player and we are glad that he will be playing with the Knighthawks,” said Styres. “We look forward to him getting his share of goals. He has a great outside shot and is a good passer.”
Bomberry, 33, enters his 14th season in the National Lacrosse League and makes his return to Rochester. The forward began his career with the Knighthawks in 1997 and will officially rejoin the team when it opens the 2010 season on Saturday, January 9th against the Buffalo Bandits at 8:05 p.m. at The Blue Cross Arena at the Rochester War Memorial.

The Six Nations product is a former first-round pick of the Knighthawks. He played in Rochester from 1997 to 2003 and won the 1997 championship. In Knighthawks’ history, he still ranks seventh in goals (115), third in assists (207) and tied for fourth in points (322). He is also second all-time in faceoff wins (525).

His career has also taken him to teams in Arizona (2004-05) and Buffalo (2006-09). The highlight was the 2008 NLL Championship with the Buffalo Bandits, which was his seventh trip to the finals. In 13 pro seasons, Bomberry has recorded 231 goals and 408 assists in 175 games, and ranks seventh all-time in league history with 898 faceoff wins. Additionally, he has twice been recognized as the winner of the National Lacrosse League Native American MVP Award by the Turtle Island News (2002-03). Bomberry has also achieved success internationally, winning (remove won) silver medals with the Iroquois Nationals at the 2003 and 2007 World Indoor Lacrosse Championships, in addition to playing for the Iroquois Nationals at the 2006 International Lacrosse Federation (ILF) World Championships. Bomberry also won two Mann Cups with the Six Nations Chiefs (1995 and 1996).

Bills Say Goodbye to Dick Jauron

The tenure of Dick Jauron in Buffalo has come to an end. After a dissapointing 41-17 loss on Sunday in Nashville against the Titans, the Buffalo Bills have terminated Dick Jauron as the head coach.

“I am announcing today that I am relieving Dick Jauron from his duties as our head coach, effective immediately," said team owner Ralph Wilson in a team statement. "I have tremendous respect for Dick and thank him for all of his efforts during these past four years. While this was a very difficult decision, I felt that it is one that needed to be made at this time for the best interest of our team. We will now focus on moving forward and preparing for our game this week in Jacksonville.” The last time Wilson has fired a head coach during the regular season was Hank Bullough back in 1986, also through nine games.

The word is from One Bills Drive that the team has just announced that Defensive Coordinator Perry Fewell will be the team's interim head coach. “Perry Fewell will be our Interim Head Coach," said owner Ralph Wilson in a team statement. "Perry has done a great job with our defense and has demonstrated excellent leadership skills as Defensive Coordinator. Our players and staff have a lot of confidence in him and that is important as we look forward to these next seven games.” The last interim head coach during the regular season was Hall of Fame Head Coach Marv Levy, after taking over the duties from Hank Bullough.

Jauron’s job security was not safe at the begining of the year as the team started 1-4 through its first five games. Jauron led the Bills to three consecutive 7-9 seasons before this season’s 3-6 record through the first nine games.
 
Struggles on both  the offensive side and defensive side of the ball plagued Jauron’s tenure in Buffalo. None of Jauron’s teams ever had an offensive ranking higher than 25th in his time as Bills head coach. Buffalo finished 30th, 30th, 25th and has a current ranking of 29th through nine games played this season. He had three different offensive coordinators in his three-plus seasons as head coach. Defending the run was also a stumbling block under Jauron’s leadership. The Bills never ranked higher than 22nd in the league against the run and are currently last in the NFL in that category this season.

The Bills are off to Jacksonville to take on the Jaguars on Sunday afternoon. For more info, read Chris Brown's blog on the official website of the Buffalo Bills, http://www.buffalobills.com/
taken from Chirs Browns Blog, photo courtesy of AP

Oswego Takes Care of Utica 3-2

The second-ranked Oswego State men’s ice hockey team survived a third-period flurry from visiting Utica to come away with a 3-2 win on Saturday night at the Campus Center Ice Arena. The Lakers held a three-goal lead heading into the final period, but the Pioneers registered two goals late in the third period to test the young Oswego team. The Lakers improved to 7-1-0 overall, while Utica suffered its first loss of the season for a record of 2-1-1.

Oswego got off to a quick start as the Lakers went on a power play in the first minute of the game. Utica effectively killed the penalty, but Oswego State caught the Pioneers in a line change as Paul Rodrigues skated up the left side of the rink. Rodrigues threaded the puck through the crease to Chris Ayotte for the one-timer past Utica goaltender Anthony Luckow for a 1-0 lead just passed the three minute mark into the first period. Halfway through the opening period , the Pioneers were whistled for a penalty. After the ensuing face-off, Stephen Mallaro took a blast from center ice that found its way into the back of the net for his third power play goal of the weekend to give the Lakers a 2-0 margin. Utica gained control of play at the end of the period, as Oswego committed two penalties with less than two minutes remaining, but did not score before the horn to end the second.

Utica carried momentum into the second period as it still held a 5-on-3 advantage for 30 seconds. However, the Lakers got through the situation unscathed as the Pioneers were unable to get on the board, putting the momentum back in favor of the Lakers. The line of Justin Fox, Chris Laganiere, and Eric Selleck quickly to advantage of the swing by creating an odd-skater rush. After chaos in front of the net, Fox tallied his sixth goal of the season with assists going to both of his linemates at 1:38 in the second period.

So Oswego came into the third period with a 3-0 lead infront of a big crowd at the Campus Center, and Utica got some momentum into the third period as Utica got on the board almost halfway into the final period when Sean Timkey threw the puck on goal with Gunn-Taylor making the initial pad save, but the rebound went right onto the tape of Evan Chlanda, who did not miss the empty net. The Pioneers cut the deficit in half to 3-2 when Brian Gibbons scored a power play goal on a rebound at 15:51 with assists going to Scott Birnstill and Chlanda.

In a very physical contest, both squads combined for 63 penalty minutes on 22 penalties as each team was 1-for-7 with the extra skater. Gunn-Taylor finished the game with 21 saves, while Luckow compiled 34 saves on 37 shots.

from Oswego Sports Information

Polls Totally Different After a Week of Shockers in D-III Men's Ice Hockey

The latest USCHO polls sees Oswego jump six spots and Manhattanville eight positions after this past weekend. The Lakers recieved six first place votes after sweeping Potsdam and defeating the number one ranked team in the nation in Plattsburgh. The Cards slipped to third while Manhattanville moved up eight positions from 12th to 4th. Adrian completes the top 5 in the USCHO D-III Polls that were released yesterday.


Team (First Place Votes) Record 

1 St. Norbert ( 7) 4-0-1
2 Oswego ( 6) 5-1-0  
3 Plattsburgh ( 4) 3-1-0 
4 Manhattanville ( 1) 3-0-0
5 Adrian ( 2) 2-0-0
6 Neumann 2-1-1
7 Middlebury 0-0-0
8 Wis.-River Falls 4-1-0  NR
9 Wis.-Stout 2-2-0 
10 St. Scholastica 3-1-0
11 Amherst 0-0-0
12 Norwich 0-0-0 
13 Hobart 2-2-1 
14 Wis.-Superior 2-2-0
15 Elmira 3-2-0

Others Receiving Votes: St. Olaf 41, Gustavus Adolphus 35, Hamline 26, Utica 18, Milw School of Eng 10, Lawrence 5, New England College 5, Castleton 3, Babson 2, Curry 2, Morrisville 1, Nichols 1, St. Thomas 1, Williams 1

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.

Genesee Hosts Night of Champions December 5th

BATAVIA, NY… Genesee Speedway will be having their awards banquet on Saturday December 5, 2009 at Batavia Downs Gaming located on 8315 Park Road in Batavia. The speedway will be honoring the top ten in each of our racing divisions including our track champions Dan Norton (Lauterborn Electric Mini Stocks), Josh Smallidge (Lauterborn Electric Street Stocks), Dave Ferguson (600 cc Mini Sprints), Mike Lauterborn (Lauterborn Electric Sprint Cars), Jon Rivers (Original Pizza Logs Late Models) and Brian Sage (Troyer Engineering DIRTcar Sportsman). There will also be special awards given out during the evening as well.


Tickets for the banquet are $30.00 and can be bought anytime from now until November 30, 2009. No tickets will be sold after November 30th. The ticket price also includes $5 in free play for Batavia Downs Gaming as it is their last meet for the 2009 season. Coctails are from 6-7 pm with dinner to be served at 7 pm with the award ceremonies to take place immediately following dinner.

To order tickets, you can send in a note stating how many tickets you would like along with a check and send them to the speedway office located at 369 Attridge Road in Churchville, NY 14428. Please remember to include your return address to receive your tickets.

The masters of ceremonies for the 2009 banquet will be Mike Paz and Steven Petty. If you have any questions on the banquet, please call the speedway office at (585) 293-2780 or email Amie at AMIE_GENESEESPEEDWAY@yahoo.com For more information, head to the Genesee Speedway website at www.geneseespeedway.com

Welcome to Steve Petty Sports

Welcome to the all new Steve Petty Sports Blog. I will be blogging about the Sabres, Amerks, Knighthawks, all of the local sports teams along with the Oswego State Lakers and the Syracuse Orange. I am a big fan of all of these teams along with two others... the New England Patriots and the 27 - Time World Series Champion New York Yankees.
I will also be blogging about what is happening on the race tracks at Wyoming County and Genesee plus other race tracks that I may be at during the racing season.
Currently I am at Genesee Community College and back on the air of WGCC-FM 90.7 three days a week (Monday,Wednesday and Friday from 9-11 AM) discussing sports and playing great classic rock music. Local sports are very important to me and I want them to survive so go out and support your local team. It doesnt matter if its AAA, or Single A like the Batavia Muckdogs. High Schools and area colleges need your support as well so go out there and enjoy a night out and see some great sports action and dont forget.. HAVE FUN.