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The nation's top-ranked team, the Oswego State men's ice hockey team, dominated Morrisville State College 8-1 at home on Saturday night. Oswego's win keeps the squad perfect on the year at 9-0-0 overall and 7-0-0 in the SUNYAC. The Mustangs drop to 1-8-2, 1-6-1 after the loss. Nine-straight wins to open a season is the Lakers' best mark since the 2010-11 group won its first 12 contests.
Oswego gained control of the game with a four-goal middle period. It started with an unassisted goal from Andrew Barton at 1:13. Barton then teamed with Matt Galati to find senior Kenny Neil for a tally less than four minutes later. The period's third goal was Shawn Hulshof's sixth score of the year from Alex Botten at 12:42. The Lakers closed out the period as Barton collected his third point by deflecting a Chris MacMillan shot off the goaltender's facemask. Galati took a try at the rebound but was stopped and Mitchell Herlihey was there to clean it up for the tally. Galati and Barton were both credited with assists on what transpired.
In the first period, the Lakers appeared on the scoreboard first thanks to unselfish play from Herlihey. The junior was open in front of the net but deferred to Galati, sending a pass near post. Galati sent a rocket careening towards the crossbar, deflecting off the bar and into the back of the net at 8:06 for his fifth of the year. It was Herlihey's fifth assist of the year. That goal also initiated the first Teddy Bear Toss in Oswego history, as fans littered the ice with teddy bear donations for the United Way.
The Lakers allowed the Mustangs to knot the game at 15:42 on a power-play, but responded just 1:11 later. Senior Joey Davies was able to locate freshman Josh Zizek for his first-collegiate tally at 16:53, regaining Oswego's advantage at 2-1, which held through the first intermission.
Oswego added two more in the final 20 minutes, with Joey Davies scoring from Joey Rutkowski at 14:10 before Stephen Johnson closed it out with a notch at 19:21 from Hulshof.
David Jacobson grabbed the win in net, playing two periods with 12 saves before being relieved by Cedric Hansen in the third. Hansen made six stops and did not allow a goal in the final period.
Oswego outshot the Mustangs 45-19 and won 11 more faceoffs (33-22).
The Lakers will return to the ice at 7 p.m. on Friday when it travels to Fredonia to face the Blue Devils in a conference matchup.
