Great article from the local paper about last 2 weeks of practice.
With an unexpected two weeks of preparation, Oswego State hockey hopes to put on a good NCAA show
By Lindsay Kramer/The Post-Standard
Oswego State men’s hockey coach Ed Gosek decided a group film session was the proper team-building exercise early last week leading into the Lakers’ preparation for the upcoming NCAA Division III tournament.
There was no choice in the video genre. It was horror all the way — Oswego State’s stunning 2-1 overtime loss to visiting Fredonia in the semifinals of the SUNYAC Tournament Feb. 26.
Gosek normally breaks down games with players individually. Not this time. He wanted the Lakers to know that good or bad, everyone is in this together.
So he sat the team in an auditorium, put the replay up on a large screen, dimmed the lights and lowered the boom. It was all thumbs down for the Lakers, who entered the contest ranked No. 1 in the country. Botched defensive assignments, bad breakouts, neutral zone follies and a sloppy attack were featured in a 90-minute run of lowlights.
“It wasn’t some fluke,” Gosek said of the loss, which dropped his team to 22-4. “Our work ethic was OK. But our execution clearly wasn’t there. It wasn’t a finger-pointing. It was the truth of the matter.”
It takes a lot to push Gosek into that type of taskmaster role. Usually he’s the prototypical good cop coach, one with a long, loose rein, quick smile and breezy conversational tone. But when the calendar hits March, one bump wrecks a season.
“He was tough on us,” said senior defenseman Stephen Mallaro, from West Genesee. “You can’t make the mistakes we were making.”
Or, as Gosek points out: “At this time of year, (if you’re just) OK, you’re going golfing.”
The NCAA has handed Oswego State one more chance to tee it up. The Lakers, now ranked No. 3 in the country, are the top seed in the East Regional. They will host an NCAA quarterfinal 7 p.m. Saturday against the winner of tonight’s Bowdoin-Neumann contest. The winner of that quarterfinal will meet the winner of Adrian-Elmira in a Frozen Four semi on March 25 in Minneapolis.
Gosek doesn’t want to hear it, but the Lakers have come on strong from the outside pole before. The national championship team of 2007 began its postseason with a SUNYAC quarterfinal overtime loss to Fredonia.
Different situation, Gosek said. That was a veteran Lakers team, one that was devastated by the defeat and knew to take it seriously. This year? We’ll see.
“I don’t think they thought it would be easy,” Gosek said of this team. “But they thought if they play to our ability, we’ll be fine. Players underestimate human nature. It’s usually not the Xs and Os, as much as the effort and execution.”
For much of this season, heart and talent have fit like glove and stick for the Lakers, who are coming off a national semifinal appearance last year. Goalie Paul Beckwith is first nationally in save percentage (.935) and second in goals against (1.78). Oswego State is second in defense (1.85 goals allowed per game) and seventh in offense (4.12).
The Lakers were rewarded with the No. 1 spot nationally for 10 of the 16 weeks that polls were released. But that’s been precisely Gosek’s point in running grinding practices the past week. Oswego State worked its way into the top spot, and the lack of that same ethic will bring about its premature and final exit.
“It’s fun when you’re clutching and grabbing and clawing your way to the top,” Gosek said. “When you get here, it’s a pain in the (butt). Now, you are trying to prove you do belong here. Last week’s practices were some of the best we’ve had all year. It was competitive, to say the least.”
The Lakers scrimmaged 5-on-5 both Friday and Saturday, with Gosek stopping play and pointedly addressing whatever issues popped up to his displeasure.
“It was cool to see him get in guys’ faces. This is our last chance for this year,” Mallaro said. “It seemed more like a training camp than it did before a big game.”
That extra week of beating up each other in practice has Gosek taking a much brighter view of the Lakers’ chances to do the same to NCAA opponents.
“The bottom line is they come to a program like this because they want to win,” he said. “They have a second life. Let’s take advantage of it and have no regrets.”
