Reisweber Nets Hatty; Lakers Level Skidmore

Garren Reisweber doubled his goal output on the season, recording his third career hat trick, as Oswego State downed Skidmore 8-3 tonight at the Campus Center Ice Arena in Oswego. The win puts the Lakers into tomorrow's Pathfinder Bank Oswego Hockey Classic title game at 7 p.m where they will face Augsburg.

Skidmore got the better start out of the gate, pumping two goals past Oswego State newcomer Tim Potter on their first three shots. But the sophomore would settle in and the Laker offense would come back from winter recess. Senior center Brendan McLaughlin took the puck off an offensive zone draw, maneuvered around his adversary, and slipped the puck across the low slot to the waiting stick of Peter Magagna who buried a backhanded shot. Ninety-five seconds later Chris Laganiere provided the game's first power-play marker, sending in a rebound off a shot from Matt Whitehead to make it a brand new game going to the locker room.

The second period is when Resiweber began to find the scoring touch, burying one past Colin Bessey at 4:36 to give the Lakers their first lead, 3-2. McLaughlin then doubled the lead as he lit the lamp off a feed from Magagna, a role reversal of the team's first goal of the night. A Matt Zxerkowski goal at 14:28 put a damper on Oswego's momentum, but not for long as Whitehead pushed the Lakers lead back to 5-3 going into the second intermission.

Whitehead continued his prolific offensive play into the third. The senior wing man fed Laganiere at the right post, who settled the puck then found an open Hank Van Boxmeer at the high slot to push the lead to 6-3. Reisweber would throw open the flood gates with a bank shot off of Bessey's skate just 19 seconds later to make it a 7-3 game. Skidmore called timeout to settle themselves. During the break, Potter left the ice with cramps. He did not return as Chris Hyk finished the game by stopping all ten shots he faced.

The final exclamataion point on the night would come a little more than five minutes later compliments of Reisweber and Derrell Levy. Skidmore was walking the puck into the neutral zone when, out of nowhere, Levy hustled in, took the puck on his stick before it advanced past the blue line, turned, and fired it to Reisweber. There wasn't a defender in sight as Reisweber stood face to face with Bessey, put the puck on his backhand side and roofed it home to secure the hat trick. Neither team score over the final 13:03 as the Lakers earned their first victory at the Campus Center since Nov. 21.

Ryan Maloney

WNYO's 3 STARS:
1. Garren Reisweber (3 goals)
2. Matt Whitehead (2 goals, 1 assist)
3. Brendan McLaughlin (1 goal, 1 assist)