Men's Ice Hockey | 2/22/2018 7:47:00 PM
Fredonia is the lowest remaining seed in the semifinal round of SUNYAC Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, so if they are going to pull the ultimate upset, they'll have to do it on the road.
The fifth-seeded Blue Devils edged four-seed Plattsburgh, 4-3, on Wednesday night at the Stafford Arena, long considered one of the toughest places to play in the SUNYAC, if not in all of NCAA Division III hockey. The win earned the Blue Devils a Saturday game at Oswego, maybe even a tougher place for road teams. The Lakers are 9-3 at the Marano Campus Center Arena, where each of the 3,000 seats is generally filled on game nights. It's where the Fredonia fell 5-3 on Nov. 18 -- followed by a 5-0 loss in Steele Hall on Feb. 3. It was the Lakers ninth straight win over the Blue Devils.
Yet the Marano Center is also where the Lakers closed out their regular season with back-to-back 1-0 losses, to Potsdam last Friday, and to Plattsburgh last Saturday. And while it's where Oswego defeated Fredonia in the 2012 and 2014 playoffs, the Marano Center is also where the Blue Devils have pulled two of their biggest upsets in post-season history. Fredonia was a 3-2 semifinal overtime winner there during the 2007 playoffs, then moved on to win at Plattsburgh for its third of three SUNYAC titles. The Blue Devils also won a 2011 semifinal in Oswego, 2-1. In both games, the Lakers came into the game nationally ranked, same as this year (No. 4 by USCHO.com and No. 5 by D3Hockey.com). They are the No. 1 seed in the SUNYAC bracket (link above).
Josh Zizek will be a key player for the Blue Devils to stop Saturday. The Plattsburgh sophomore had two goals in each of the previous two games against Fredonia. He also had two assists in Oswego's 5-3 come-from-behind win Nov. 18. Joseph Molinaro also had two goals and Mitch Herlihey four assists in the 5-0 win at Fredonia on Feb. 3.
The Blue Devils can draw bit of confidence from each of those games. In the first game, they led 3-1 on goals by senior
Sam Wilbur (Saginaw, Mich.), sophomore
Mike Freeman (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.), and junior
Bobby Polachek (Kingston, Pa.) before Oswego scored four unanswered goals in the third period. Fredonia goaltender
Eric Bogart (London, Ont.) made 30 saves compared to 19 by Oswego's Cedric Hansen.
In the second matchup, which was also Fredonia's annual Pink The Rink game, the Blue Devils put together several solid shifts early in the game, especially when the teams were at even-strength. Special teams were the difference. Oswego scored three power-play goals (in five chances) and was 5 of 5 on the penalty kill. David Richir made 36 saves for the shutout.
Anton Rosén (Orsa, Sweden) stopped 31 shots for Fredonia.
The puck drops at 7 p.m.
In Saturday's other SUNYAC semifinal, three-seed Buffalo State visits two-seed Geneseo. The SUNYAC championship game is March 3.
