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I'd agree. I was there last night and although Utica didn't impress me much, they hanged (this sounds wrong...but pictures are young and people are hanged, right?) tough with Oswego and put away the few chances they had.
Kyle Gunn-Taylor certainly had one of his off nights (maybe his first off night? as a starter for Oswego)
However, one injustice that simply hasnt been stated enough is the amount of times Anthony Luckow intentionally knocked the net off its mournings anytime there was a scramble in front of his net.
Utica didn't have pegs for the net, instead just the slight indent in the ice that the net sits in which if Neil Musselwhite skates by, the net has a 50/50 chance of falling off
The Refs FINALLY said something to Luckow after the eighth time he knocked the net off. Atleast two or three Oswego goals were called back because of the net coming off before the puck crossed the line. It was downright comical by the end of the first period as Outlaw88 and I started counting the times he knocked it off.
Final score for the night was Luckow:11 Oswego:5 Utica:4
The ironic thing was the net KGT was defending only came off twice all night. The first time it was knocked off during a scramble in front of the net and the second time two players came barrelling into it and the net obviously had no chance in that scenario.
Utica needs to get the rubberized pegs or something because the "magnet" or slight indentation in the ice isn't cutting it. Is this common for Luckow at home games or was this the first time its happened all year? If this has happened all year, what a joke. Luckow should be leading the country in PIM with delay of game penalties.
I was very impressed with Oswego's first and second lines. The Dormo/Musselwhite/Leimbrock line is fun to watch and just an absolute nightmare for opposing teams to match up with. Size, speed, relentless forecheck and backcheck they challenge everything and play great two way hockey.
The top line i think concentrates on the offensive end a bit too much at times but I guess that's expected with the firepower on that line. Laganiere is the only one that skates back 100% to break up plays. Nonetheless, Selleck and Fox have ridiculous offensive skill sets and they showed it last night as Selleck added two goals with one being a snipe from the slot.
Fox's goal was a bit of a fluke as it went in off his torso as he was sliding on the ice into the goal. He was tripped by the Utica d-man and was lucky enough that the puck bounced right off him and into the net. You make your own luck and bounces sometimes and that's exactly what Fox did to score the game winning goal.
Huinnik and Lyon played solid games for the Lakers on the defensive side of things. Huinnik laid some big hits and positioned himself well. Lyon is doing a tremendous job wearing the C and being a vocal leader from the blueline as well as picking up a big goal on a blast from the point for the Lakers to score their first goal.
I was impressed that Gosek gave the fourth line a lot of ice time late in the game. Outlaw and I commented how we didnt think the third line got a shift till the 13 minute mark of the third period. They came out again with about eight minutes left and I thought that would be the final time we saw them.
However, they got a shift with 5 minutes to go and another one with 2:30 minutes left and they played well and did a great job dropping a forward back and protecting the lead. Singleton forechecked well and bottled up the Utica breakout never allowing them to set up in the offensive zone late in the game.
It's nice to see Gosek have confidence in his fourth line to play them that late in a game with just a one goal lead. That kind of experience and confidence will go a long way for the Lakers when they face the tougher teams on their schedule that are deeper like Plattsburgh, Adrian and Elmira etc.
I think the key to Oswego's success this year though will lie in its third line. The Moodie/Rodrigues/Whitelaw line has a TON of potential and they have shown glimpses of great things in the two games I've seen so far this year. They didn't do a whole lot last night even though Moodie did pick up a goal.
Whitelaw is a tremendous two way player and IMHO is a very underrated player on this team. Rodrigues nickname needs to be "The Jet" because he can flat out fly on the ice.
If Oswego can get that line going, they have three SCARY good lines. I can't wait for that Adrian game to see how the Lakers match up!
Got to meet Pios#1, he's an a-okay kid. Reminded me exactly me when I was teenager just starting out on these boards. I think I was 12 or 13 when I made my first post. (ahh the days of Purple_and_Gold10) He has a great passion for hockey and I'm interested to see how much he matures over the next few years with his posting.
Summary...the good and great teams find ways to win games even when they don't have their best nights or the puck doesnt bounce their way. Oswego did this last night amongst all the extracurricular stuff going on off the ice. Now they've got two more tough tests this weekend with Hamilton and Hobart. If things go the way they did last night they could easily drop one of those games and it wouldn't surprise me.
Hobart and Utica seem to always give Oswego fits so it doesnt surprise me that the games are close too much. There is just something about Utica that no matter how much more talent Oswego has, they can't seem to thoroughly pound them like you would think they could.
Last night's game could have easily been 8-4 or something along those lines if the net stayed on the majority of the night.
I was very surprised at how many Oswego fans (especially current students) showed up for the game last night. I'd estimate there were atleast 200 or so Oswego fans out of the 1500 reported attendance. i think they probably counted the season ticket holders as attending because the Aud was pretty empty last night and there were a lot of empty "white paper seats", which are the season ticket holder seats.
Id guess attendance was more like 1200-1300.
Already nicknamed him "The Mexican" for the name and for the fact that he did the work in the corners that no one else wanted to do. That's not racist or anything, right?
This is right up there with Tyler 'The King of the Jungle' Lyon for best nickname on the team
Anyone come up with some new ones for the other rookies?
5-Oswego won the game but Plattsburgh was the better team...