By JOE ECKSTROM
OBSERVER Sports Reporter
For the Fredonia State Blue Devils men's hockey team, there is no moral victory despite coming back from a 4-0 deficit only to lose 5-4 in overtime to the No. 1 team in the country in Oswego on Saturday at Steele Hall.
Article Photos
OBSERVER?Photo by John Conti
Fredonia State’s Bryan?Ross skates with the puck during Saturday’s SUNYAC?hockey game at Steele Hall.
"We did a good job of rallying and coming back," Fredonia State captain Chris de Bruyn said. "We have to focus on the positives. There is no time to dwell on this loss because we are in the middle of a playoff race."
The Blue Devils spotted Oswego a 2-0 lead in the first period, before the Lakers tacked on two more goals early in the second period.
"We're just going to have to shake it off," Fredonia State senior forward Alex Morton said. "We spotted the number one team in the country four goals and dominated them from the middle of the game until the end."
Fredonia State's first goal came with 2:42 left in the second period when Billy Sanborn's shot dribbled past the Lakers' goalie to make it 4-1.
The Blue Devils got on the scoreboard again when Bryan Ross scored on a Fredonia State 5-on-3 advantage.
See FSU, Page B2
Four minutes later, Fredonia State moved to within a goal when Andrew Christ blocked an Oswego shot that ended up near center ice. From there, Christ took the puck and after an initial stop by Oswego goaltender, the puck trickled through.
"It really stinks because you don't want to take any consolation away from a loss," Fredonia State coach Jeff Meredith said. "It was a nice comeback, but it was a loss and it doesn't matter who it was against."
With :5.3 left in the game, Mat Hehr netted the tying goal to send the Blue Devils into overtime.
"We're at a crossroads in our season," Meredith said. "We need to find out if we're a true contender and it doesn't matter what seed we are because we can play with anyone, or if we're a pretender."
The Lakers had the man advantage as Fredonia State committed a penalty at the end of regulation.
Oswego took advantage of the Fredonia State miscue by scoring the game winner :55 into overtime.
"We had a lot of good things happen," Meredith said. "We still have a little water in our gas lines though. We need to get the guys who are close, to be at their best."
With the loss, Fredonia State moves to 4-6 in SUNYAC play and hovering around sixth in the conference, with six teams making the SUNYAC playoffs.
"This is going to be a big week for our players," Meredith said. "We need to take a good inventory of our guys and see where they are all at."
Devils win 'War of the Boards'
Special to the OBSERVER
POTSDAM - The Fredonia State women's basketball team out-rebounded Potsdam 53-26 en route to a 57-49 victory on Saturday.
"We're thrilled with the win," Fredonia State coach Donna Wise.
The Devils had a team effort as four players had seven rebounds and ten players figured in the scoring column.
Caroline Hourihan, Anna Riley, Lindsay Schwab and Liz Wierbinski each had seven boards. They limited the Bears to just six offensive rebounds while grabbing 21 second-opportunities for themselves.
"We knew this was going to be a key in the game," Wise said of the rebounding. "We felt that we were able to get in there and gain some points by getting offensive rebounds. We wanted to make sure we were getting the put backs and as many second chance points as we could get."
Wierbinski was tops in the scoring column as well, netting 14 points on the strength of 10-for-10 shooting from the free throw line. Kristina Kuscht and Nicole Calbi were also perfect from the line, combining to go nine-for-nine. Kuscht finished with seven points. Calbi had six and three assists.
"We've been working on trying to score points," Wise said. "We're trying to find another way to score points other than just field goals," she added, referring to the Devils' shooting 23-of-30 from the free throw line.
The Devils led by eight at the break, 27-19.The wrapped up the period on a 6-0 run, with all six points coming from the free throw line.
The Devils led for most of the second period with Potsdam's only lead coming 33-31 with 11:08 left to play.
Brittany Whitton had 14 points to top Potsdam. The Bears drop to 1-7 in the SUNYAC and 2-13 overall.
The Devils (1-7, 3-11) are back in action Tuesday at Steele Hall to take on Geneseo.
