Women's Hockey Earns 1st Conference Win

The Oswego State women's ice hockey team began their climb up the ECAC West standings with a 3-1 victory over Chatham at the Campus Center Ice Arena. Jessica Lister lit the lamp 34 seconds in off a feed from Erica Shapey and the Lakers never looked back. The marker was Lister's team-leading fifth of the season. Defenceman Erica Rossi also received credit for an assist on the play.

Freshman Brenna Weber recorded her first collegiate goal midway through the first period on a writer from the left-wing faceoff circle. Lister was credited with a helper. That would stand up as the game-winner after Chatham's April Govednik scored her first goal of the season to start the second period.

Govednik's shot would be the only one to slip past Laker netminder Hillary Hitchman. The sophomore stopped 26 shots en route to her fourth win in goal.

"(Hitchman) made some top-end saves, some clutch reaction saves on some tight rebounds where we had breakdowns in defensive zone coverage," said second-year head coach Diane Dillon. "Her game has come along so much. She's playing with a renewed confidence and I think it's clear to see why she's out number one goaltender."

Many of Hitchman's saves came with her team on the penalty kill. The Lakers had 33 penalty minutes on the day, including a five-minute major and game misconduct to Shapey for checking from behind. Dillon questioned the official's decision to send the freshman pivot off, but knew why the call was made.

"I'm afraid that's the way the rule reads. Any hit from behind is an automatic. Was there intent there? No. But it clearly was a hit from behind, so that's an automatic ten."

Oswego State was able to kill off that five-minute penalty and were succesful on 9-of-10 penalty kills for the game. The Lakers imorved to 5-9-1 on the season with the win, 1-6-0 in the ECAC West. Chatham fell to 0-16-0 on the year, 0-9-0 in conference.

Ryan Maloney

NOTES:

• Chatham is now 0-96-1 since joining the ECAC West in 2002 with a conference mark of 0-70-1.
• Coach Dillon said she will start freshman Emi Williams in net tomorrow.
  
• It will be Williams' second start of the season, she was between the pipes in a 2-1 loss at St. Olaf last Jan. 13. She stopped 28 of 30 shots.
  
• She also played the third period of a 9-1 loss to top-ranked Plattsburgh on Nov. 9, stopping 6 of 9 shots.
• Coach Dillon said that sophomore goalie Erin Robson is recovering from "some minor surgery" and will compete for ice time when she returns.
• The Lakers are two wins shy of equaling last season's win total with 10 games left to play.
• Buffalo State lost 5-2 to Utica, bringing the Lakers two points closer to the final ECAC West playoff bid.
• Top-ranked Plattsburgh suffered their first ECAC West loss since Jan. 24, 2004. They lost 5-2 to RIT snapping a 39-game conference unbeaten streak.
  
• It marked their first conference loss at Stafford Arena since Nov. 10, 2001 snapping a 43-game unbeaten streak.
• The Lakers are asking fans to come enjoy an open-skate with the team following Sunday's 3 p.m. contest. Skate rental is free of charge.