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The Oswego State men's ice hockey team opened the regular season with a convincing 7-1 victory over the Elmira College Soaring Eagles on Friday night in the Marano Campus Center Arena. Oswego – who is receiving votes in both the D3hockey.com and USCHO polls – is now 5-1-1 in season-openers since the turn of the decade.
Oswego got all of the offense it needed in a matter of two minutes in the first period. Kenny Neil recorded the Lakers' first goal, which was of the short-handed fashion, at 11:59; he was assisted by Alex Botten. In the 14th minute, the two Lakers swapped spots as Botten scored the eventual game-winning goal with the primary assist credited to Neil. Shawn Hulshof had the secondary assist on the score.
The Lakers did not stop there though, as the team put together five more goals over the final 46-plus minutes. In the second period, Jody Sullivan and Aaron Huffnagle tallied their first-career goals to give Oswego a 4-0 lead.
Wrapping it up in the third frame, was the veteran group of Lakers. Matt Galati—assisted by Shawn Hulshof and Stephen Johnson—, David Ferreira—assisted by Sean Federow and Chris Raguseo—and Andrew Barton—unassisted—each tallied scores to effectively put the game away.
Matt Zawadzki just missed out on a season-opening shutout, settling for a win nonetheless. The senior goaltender made 17 saves in the win, including a glove-save snag in the second period.
Oswego and Elmira will square off again at 7 p.m. on Saturday, with that game being played at the Soaring Eagles' home.
