Streak vs. Belief: Oswego Ready to Challenge Hobart’s 67 Home Game Win Streak in SUNYAC Final

OSWEGO, N.Y. — The Lakers are rarely seen as the underdog, and they certainly aren’t a stranger to the big game, as 11-time SUNYAC champions and National Champions in 2007 at the Division III level, championship-caliber hockey is the standard at Oswego.

But Saturday night’s SUNYAC Championship presents a rare role reversal for the Oswego State men’s ice hockey program. The reigning conference champions will enter the title game as clear underdogs.

The newcomers of the SUNYAC conference #1 Hobart Statesmen, will play host to the Lakers inside “The Cooler.” The Statesmen are a well-oiled machine, a team that hasn’t lost at home since Feb. 26, 2022, and sometimes a Division III team that often looks like a Division I squad.

Hobart has beaten Oswego handily this season, twice. But the Lakers are disseminating a different message in the locker room this time around.

“Well, our message is pretty simple to our guys: we’re the reigning champs, it’s their job to try and take it away from us.” Oswego Head Coach Ed Gosek said, following Saturday’s SUNYAC semifinal win over Skidmore.

While Oswego knows they need a short memory of the two prior matchups and to carry the confidence of being the defending SUNYAC champs into Geneva, they also want to stay loose and stick to their game.

“Just be us. Keep doing what we’ve been doing,” Oswego freshman goalie Michael Manzi said. “As I said before, keep it basic, have fun. Once we get out there, it’s us versus them. Let’s make them play our game. Just have fun with it.”

Manzi is projected to start in the championship game, a scenario few would have predicted at the start of the season. The freshman has impressively risen up the ranks to capture this opportunity.

Gosek emphasized that the decision reflects the collective effort in net all year. He noted that all three goalies have battled all season and have each given a spark to the team, but Manzi has been the hottest of all three of them lately, only allowing 4 goals in his last 4 games.

Gosek also believes that Oswego hasn’t truly played up to their potential in the two previous matchups, when the Lakers were outscored 11-3 and outshot 74-40 combined.

“Head-to-head this year, they’ve had the upper hand,” Gosek said, “But I would say some of it was obviously them, in the way in which the games are played, but a lot of it was also self-inflicted by ourselves.”

Now, the environment the Lakers will be heading into is…unique, to say the least.

“The Cooler,” the old barn on the shores of Seneca Lake, can get pretty rowdy during big games. The arena’s nickname was given by Hobart Head Coach Mark Taylor. It dates back to 1979, when the rink opened as an open-air facility. Since 2008, the arena has been enclosed.

Last time in Geneva, the Lakers were greeted with taunts after every period by a series of shirtless men, with each letter of Hobart spelled out across their chests. Oswego would like to silence that crowd quickly.

“We just want to play a gritty, greasy road game, to be honest, and take their crowd out of it,” Oswego Captain Matt McQuade said.

This is essentially a do-or-die game for Oswego’s NCAA tournament hopes; it’s worth remembering exactly why. The winners of the conference tournaments earn an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, leaving just four at-large spots available nationally. If Oswego falls short, the Lakers would have to hope their national ranking, determined by the NCAA’s NPI formula, is high enough to secure one of those four at-large bids.

The odds may not be in Oswego’s favor, but as anyone who follows playoff hockey knows, it’s very unpredictable.

“We know what we need to do, we’re getting hot here, we’re peaking at the right time, and we’re playing some good hockey.” McQuade said, “Obviously, they’re a hell of a team, it’s going to be a battle, but at the end of the day it’s a one-game series, and anything can happen out there, and I would not count the boys out.”

We’ll find out on Saturday if the Lakers can take down a heavyweight and send shockwaves throughout the hockey world. And more importantly, win back-to-back SUNYAC titles for the first time since the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons.

Oswego Now will have coverage before, during, and after the game. You can also watch the game on WTOP10 or listen to the game on WNYO 88.9 FM.