Its Hockey Night Tonight: #1 Oswego State Lakers vs Utica Pioneers

Tonight makes the first trip to Utica for the Lakers since January 23, 2007 when the host Pioneers handed Oswego their first loss of the season by the score of 5-2 on that evening. It was that season that Oswego went on to win the National Championship... the first for any sport in school history. Earlier this season, these two teams had a meeting up at the Campus Center Ice Arena with the Lakers coming away with a 3-2 victory.Goals for the Lakers came off the sticks of Stephen Mallaro, Justin Fox and Chris Ayotte, who scored his first collegiante goal.

Utica comes into tonights contest at the Aud with a 4-5-2 record. This years team has many resemblances to the team that defeated Oswego three years ago. The Pioneers started this season with a record of 2-0-1 in their first three contests but since then, they've gone winless in six of their last eight games, a streak that started with the already mentioned 3-2 loss in Oswego on November 14th.


Oswego comes in to the Aud with a record of 10-1 and winners of nine straight. Including the weekend sweep of Brockport and Geneseo at the Campus Center. Neil Musselwhite scored a natural shorthanded Hat Trick in the 10-1 victory against the Brockport Golden Eagles. Eric Selleck scored the game winner in the 4-2 win over the Ice Knights of Geneseo on Saturday night.

The Steve Petty Sports Spotlight for the Lakers tonight will be the line of Eric Selleck, Justin Fox and Chris Laganiere. Selleck has nine goals and 19 assists for 28 points in this his sophomore season. The freshmen Justin Fox has six goals and 17 assists for 23 points and linemate Chris Laganiere has 12 goals with 13 assists for 25 points. Between the pipes for the Lakers, Kyle Gunn-Taylor has a record of 7-0 with a goals against average of 1.43 with a save percentage of over 93.

The Spotlight for the host Pioneers include sophomore Tim Coffman. Coffman has 13 points on seven goals and six assists through their first 11 games this season. Coffman collected five points during Utica's last three games (0-2-1). Fellow sophomore Bryan Gibbons has 11 points while scoring four goals and collecting seven assists. In the pipes for the Pioneers, senior Anthony Luckow has a record of 4-4-2 with a goals against average of 3.13 and having a .894 save percentage.

Oswego has not swept Utica during the regular season since 2004-2005 and have split the season series in 2005-2006 and in 2006-2007. The Lakers have a 7-3-1 all time series lead against the Pioneers.
The puck drops at 7:00 pm live from the Utica Memorial Auditorium. The Aud as its known has been open for the last 51 seasons and was the host of the 1962 Frozen Four. Also, scenes from the 1977 hit Slap Shot was filmed there. The Aud also served as the model for the renovation of the "Worlds Most Famous Arena", Madison Square Garden in New York City back in 1968.

Photo Courtesy of  www.uticaaud.org with information provided by both teams and the VOTL.com