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Team blows lead in loss to No. 1 Oswego, beat Cortland
By Aaron Garland
On November 21, 2012
The Buffalo State men's hockey team extended, and then ended its losing streak over the
weekend by losing to No. 1-ranked Oswego and defeating Cortland.
With the 5-4 loss to Oswego Friday night, the Bengals are now 0-35-4 all-time against the
Lakers. Despite sporting a 3-1 second-period lead, Buffalo State couldn't pull off the upset.
"We came out hard, we played them hard for maybe 40 minutes and then you let a team
like (Oswego) get a sniff, then they're going to take advantage of it," captain Mike Zannella
said.
The Lakers rode four unanswered goals to victory and served the Bengals (3-5-1, 2-4-1 SUNYAC)
their fourth straight loss. It also marked the second consecutive game the Bengals blew a two-
goal lead.
"The end result was a reflection of us still not quite understanding certain situations that occur
and how we need to react to them as a team," head coach Nick Carriere said. "It's still a work in
progress."
Buffalo State used the man advantage to build the lead. A pair of first period power-play goals
from Matt Bessing and Brett Hope gave them a 2-0 lead. Oswego's David Titanic scored to cut
the deficit in half with less than two minutes remaining in the opening frame.
Trevor McKinney added another power-play goal just 10 seconds into the second period to
regain the Bengals' two-goal lead. Bessing would later add his second power-play goal of the
night in the final minute of the game. The Bengals finished 4-for-9 on the power play and held
the Lakers to just 1-of-7.
"For our power play, we really got moving around and we used our guy in the middle inside
the zone, found soft spots and we were able to find them and get open," Bessing said.
Oswego tied the game before the second intermission and used two goals in the first half
of the third period to secure the win. While special teams were clicking for the Bengals,
defensive lapses contributed to the blown lead.
Zannella noted that a talented team like Oswego will capitalize on errors made by the
opposition.
"We had a couple breakdowns, just pick-ups on the back-check," Zannella said. "Their guys
would get open for a spit second and it's in the back of the net."
The Bengals were outshot 42-23 as Kevin Carr made 37 stops in net.
Though the Bengals failed to end their losing streak against Oswego, Zannella and Carriere
both agreed that the team can use the close result as a learning curve to win that type of
game in the future.
Buffalo State managed to snap their four-game skid Saturday night with a 3-0 win over
Cortland. Carr made 30 saves en route to recording his second shutout of the year.
The Bengals took the positives from playing the best team in the nation to within one goal
and applied them against the Red Dragons.
"We knew we needed to win, our backs were up against the wall, we had to get out of that
losing streak," Bessing said. "But I think we got a little confidence coming out of the Oswego
game even though we didn't win, we definitely carried over a little momentum into the
Cortland game."
Mike Connolly opened the scoring with what ended up being the game-winner, putting the
Bengals up just 4:48 into the game. Trevor McKinney netted his fifth of the year 4:01 into
the second frame, and Kyle Whipple added a power-play marker just 35 seconds later.
Though Carriere commended the play of Carr, he attributes the shutout victory to a full
team effort.
"We just worked for it and we played a pretty simple game and made them work for it,"
Carriere said. "They really didn't get a whole lot of grade-A scoring chances."
The Bengals' penalty kill killed off both Cortland power play opportunities. Playing a man
down is something that beleaguered the team in a pair of losses last weekend.
After killing off just 7-of 15-power plays (46 percent) in those games a week ago, the
Bengals killed off 8-of-9 power plays (88 percent) this weekend.
"The amount of penalties we took this weekend was a lot less, which helped," Zannella
said. "So our PK was a little more fresh, but we definitely worked hard on it last week
(during practice) to tune it up - really have our sticks in passing lanes and things like
that."
Buffalo State will look to start a winning streak when they next play at 7 p.m. on Friday,
Nov. 30 at Fredonia. It will be the team's final SUNYAC game for nearly two months.
Aaron Garland can be reached by email at garland.record@live.com.
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