The Oswego State Lakers suffered a 5-1 beat down tonight at the hands of the Hamilton Continentals at the Campus Center Ice Arena in Oswego, NY. Hamilton's victory has them playing the Hobart Statesmen at 1:00 pm New Years Eve and the host Lakers will play in the third place game at 4:00 pm against UW Stevens Point.
The Lakers saw its 25-game home winning streak come to an end on Thursday in front of an estimated crowd of 2300. Hamilton stormed out of the gates in the first period capitalizing on an Oswego State boarding penalty midway through the frame. Bryan Kelly carried the puck up the left side of the rink before being checked off the puck. Anthony Ruberto picked up the puck and laced a pass through the slot to Joe Houk, who was crashing to the net. Houk slid the puck under Laker goaltender Andrew Hare to give Hamilton a 1-0 lead at the 10:03 mark. The score stood at the first intermission.
Midway through the second period, Oswego State's Joe Hall ripped a shot that clanged off the pipe and crossbar. The rebound went to the Continentals, who created an odd-man rush the opposite direction. Thomas Williams and Nick Anderson had a 2-on-1 opportunity as Williams fed Anderson for his third goal of the season at 12:24 in the frame to put Hamilton ahead 2-0. Anderson added another goal in the final two minutes of the stanza to make the score 3-0 with 20 minutes remaining.
The Lakers got on the scoreboard at 5:13 in the third period when Ian Boots crashed the net for a loose puck. Hank Van Boxmeer and Paul Rodrigues were awarded assists on the goal. However, the Continentals quickly responded with a pair of goals in under 30 seconds in the ninth minute of the frame to bring the score to 5-1.Hamilton's Scott Hefferman registered 27 saves for the victory. Oswego State's Andrew Hare suffered the loss with 26 saves in 48:45, while Dan Jones posted three saves in the final 11:02.
The loss marked the first time that the Lakers suffered a home loss since February 21, 2009 when they fell to Potsdam, 4-2.The loss also marks the first time that the Lakers suffered losses in back to back contests since that weekend in February 2009 as they lost to both Potsdam and Plattsburgh.
story courtesy of Oswego State Sports Information
Petty's Point: Bad play all night and spending most of the time in the pelenty box. Oswego spent 22 minutes in the sin bin including a ten minute misconduct pelenty. Also, the Lakers were 0-5 on the Powerplay. Sloppy play in their own end and sloppy passes led to this pathetic loss tonight.
