The men's hockey team is coming off of a rough weekend, enduring two losses on their home ice. On Friday night, they were beaten 5-0 by the Oswego Lakers, and on Saturday they fell to Cortland 3-2 in overtime.
In Friday's game, Oswego scored their first goal less than three minutes into the first period. The Lakers would score again with 10 minutes left in the period.
"We always know that Oswego is going to come out flying against us and we prepare for that," said sophomore Jeff MacPhee.
Geneseo outshot Oswego 15-13 in the first period, but the Knights were unable to get the puck past Oswego goalie Ryan Scott.
"We simply could not put pucks in the net, even open nets," said head coach Chris Schultz.
The Knights kept Oswego from scoring in the second period, but the action was halted for 20 minutes when a check by an Oswego player shattered glass onto both him and junior Sean Hayden. Neither player was injured, but the game was stopped to clean up the mess.
"The worst part was dusting glass off of the equipment," said Hayden.
Oswego scored a shorthanded goal five minutes into the third period and added two more with six minutes left in the game.
"As a whole we battled hard, and the score doesn't come close to representing the effort we put forth," said Hayden.
Senior Derek Jokic made 28 saves and allowed three goals in 45 minutes, while junior Jeff Pasemko added seven saves but allowed the final two goals of the game.
"They [Oswego] are one of the elite teams in the nation," said Schultz. "We expected every bit of their talent."
Junior Brandon French added, "The score didn't indicate how well we played on Friday against the defending national champions."
Saturday night's game was a different story. The Knights faced the Cortland Red Dragons and battled until the final minutes of the game. Sophomore Phil Rose scored just two minutes into the first period for the Knights. Cortland answered with a goal seven minutes later, tying the game 1-1. After a scoreless second period, sophomore Sebastian Panetta was given a five minute major for checking from behind two minutes into the third period.
"This had a huge impact," Schultz explained. "With Panetta gone and freshman Andrew Rygiel benched for taking a penalty, we were forced to go with a shorter bench."
Cortland was able to score on the ensuing power play, giving them the lead with 14 minutes left in the game. "We just knew we had to battle back and get one," said MacPhee.
Geneseo senior Matt Cyr scored two minutes later, sending the game into overtime. In the extra period, the Knights were unable to score, and with a minute and a half left on the game clock, Cortland scored a breakaway goal for the win.
"After Friday's loss to a strong Oswego team, we knew what we had to do in order to win on Saturday, but for some reason we just couldn't put all the pieces together," said French.
"We had numerous opportunities to win in regulation," said Schultz. "Cortland raised their level of play in overtime, and with our short bench, our guys were a little tired."
The two losses leave Geneseo with a 3-5 overall record, and a 3-3 mark in the SUNYAC.
"Losing a game in overtime is always tough," said MacPhee, "especially when we outplayed them and had so many chances."