The Oswego State men's ice hockey team escaped Cortland with a 3-0 win Saturday night. Freshman forward Joe Hall's second-period marker stood up as the game-winner. Senior goaltender Ryan Scott stopped all 37 shots he faced for his ninth career shutout.The SUNYAC regular-season finale saw its fair share of dramatic moments. In the first period, Oswego State's Peter Magagna and Cortland's Frank Rizzo had a brief shoving match prior to a face-off in the neutral zone.
Midway through the second, Magagna cracked Rizzo on the leg with his stick during a stoppage in play. Rizzo fell to the ice clutching his shin as Magagna was sent off with a two-minute minor for slashing. Rizzo stayed on the ice for his shift. Magagna would score his 11th goal of the season with less than two minutes remaining in the period to double Oswego State's lead to 2-0. Magagna also extended his career-best scoring streak to 13 games. Linemates Ryan Ellis and Brendan McLaughlin assisted on the goal. McLaughlin extended his point streak to a career-high 14 games.
Tempers would flare again in the third with the Lakers still holding the 2-0 lead. At the 16:41 mark, Cortland's Brent Fallon was given a game misconduct for roughing, and teammate Mike Maier was whistled for two minors, a cross check and a blow to the head. He was given a 10-minute misconduct. Magagna also received a 10-minute misconduct after another slashing minor. With just 3:19 left to play, Magagna and Maier were sent to the showers.
Unlike Oswego State's Campus Center Ice Arena, Cortland's Alumni Hall requires players from both teams to exit and enter the ice via the same tunnel between the benches. As Magagna made his way towards the locker room, Rizzo threw an object at him from the Cortland bench. Maier made his way to the tunnel soon after Magagna. As Maier escaped from view of the press box, a swarm of personnel from both the arena and the clubs were seen rushing towards the locker rooms. Fans seated on the bench-side bleachers rushed to the rails to see what was transpiring. The excitement would soon die down as order was restored and the action on the ice resumed.
As the dust settled, the Lakers found themselves with a 5-on-3 advantage. Senior co-captain Tony DiNunzio put Oswego State up 3-0 as he lit the lamp 30-seconds into the power play for his seventh goal of the season. All of DiNunzio's goals have come in the team's final ten regular-season games; he has 13 points during that stretch.Cortland's loss solidified them as the fifth-seed in the SUNYAC tournament. They entered the weekend looking like a solid bet to finish fourth and get home-ice advantage in Tuesday's playoff game. But that was before then-sixth-place Potsdam upset first-place Plattsburgh 4-2 on Friday, putting the Bears a point ahead of the Red Dragons for fourth. Cortland will now travel to Potsdam for Tuesday night's preliminary round playoff game. Hear the game here.
Sixth-seed Buffalo State will pay a visit to third-seed Fredonia for the second straight game. Hear the game here. The Blue Devils scored a 2-1 overtime win over the Bengals Friday night. Oswego State will host the highest-remaining seed at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Campus Centre. Ticket information is available here.
Ryan Maloney
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