Three third period goals lift Oswego past Bowdoin in NCAA First Round

by Ray Biggs

Harry Matheson (#12) had a goal and an assist to
end his Bowdoin career with 100 points.

Oswego State Lyrics (21-6-2) 4
Bowdoin Polar Bears (17-9-2) 3


On Wednesday, an already long road to the postseason got even longer for both Oswego and Bowdoin. The night’s scheduled NCAA tournament contest between the two was temporarily wiped off the schedule as a sizeable blizzard pelted Central New York that afternoon, prompting Oswego to cancel classes and the game along with it. No matter what team you happened to be rooting for, the rescheduled matchup was worth the wait as Oswego advanced in an intense seesaw battle by a 4-3 final.

With the way the final score was decided, it was only fitting that the two teams played to a 0-0 tie at the end of the opening frame. Oswego had several chances to break open the scoring early, aided by their first powerplay opportunity just 3:22 into the matchup, but two hit posts and the outstanding goaltending of Bowdoin’s Max Fenkell (G, '15) helped keep the game scoreless. Fenkell’s first period performance was highlighted by a spectacular kick save with four minutes to go in the first period. Meanwhile, Oswego’s Matt Zawadzki (G, '17) was terrific as well, coming up with 13 saves.

But, with two offensively gifted teams, something had to give, and it was the young Lakers who would draw first blood by virtue of one of the components of their program's identity throughout the years: the transition game. At the 6:04 mark of the second period, freshman Alex Botten (F, '17) took advantage of crisp north-south passing from Nick Rivait (D, '15) to Matt Galati (F, '17). Botten took the entry pass over the offensive stripe, cut to his right, and backhanded a shot over the shoulder of Fenkell to give the Lakers a 1-0 lead.

But as fate would have it, the Polar Bears and Lakers would end the period tied. Coming up on the final minute of the period, Bowdoin’s Jay Livermore (D, '14) cranked up a blast to the top shelf to even things up at one.

Both goaltenders were lucky that two goals were all that was scored in the second period. Zawadzki and Fenkell both found themselves saved by a stoppage in play in a dangerous situation over the course of the period. First, a scrum erupted in front of Fenkell, who made the initial save through traffic but could not hang onto the rebound. Before either team could move in to clean up, the referees blew the play dead. Then, in the closing seconds of the period, Bowdoin’s Connor Quinn (F, '15) jumped on a pass and brought John Mcginnis in tow for a shorthanded rush, but it was not to be as the period expired when Quinn got to the offensive stripe.

Bowdoin carried the momentum forward into the third period as they killed off the remainder of the carryover penalty from Zach Kokosa (F, '17), then went on to lead by as many as two goals. Matt Rubinoff (F, '16) knocked home one of the two Bowdoin tallies in the period with the assist coming to Harry Matheson (F, '14), before Matheson assumed the role of goal scorer to give Bowdoin a 3-1 lead. The two points (1-1-2) on the afternoon gave Matheson exactly 100 (53-47-100) for his Bowdoin career.

With Bowdoin in command of the game, Oswego head coach Ed Gosek burned his timeout after the Matheson goal in attempt to turn the tide in the Lakers favor. The strategy paid off as Oswego rattled off three consecutive goals from Botten, David Titanic (F, '14), and Mike Montagna (F, '15). After the game, Gosek looked back on his game-changing decision to call timeout.

“With the timeout, the reality was, we had to change or the outcome was going to stay the same. We started moving our feet, started getting pucks in deep and with that came the momentum shift,” Gosek said.

Botten’s game-winner highlighted the Laker run, as Titanic drove in from the right wing side and dished out a picture perfect pass across the crease to Botten to pick up the go-ahead goal with 3:20 to go.

Bowdoin continued to fight all the way to the end, punctuated by reigning NESCAC Playero of the Week John McGinnis' (F, '14) shot block to deny Montagna the empty-net goal with under five seconds remaining, but Oswego would prevail, 4-3. Zawadzki racked up 27 saves to pick up the win for Oswego, while Fenkell nailed down 32 saves for Bowdoin.

Despite taking the loss, Bowdoin head coach Terry Meagher had reason to be proud of his team and the effort they put together on the road not only in this game, but throughout the postseason.

“I thought it was a great game today, I couldnt be more proud of a group of young men on not only how they performed today and how they’ve represented the conference, but the run they’ve been on in the past month. We haven’t been home in a month, they’ve dealt with it, and they met those challenges, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

The Polar Bears fall to a final record of 17-9-2 on the season, as their season once again came to an end in an NCAA Tournament game in Central New York for the fourth time in five years. Meanwhile, the Lakers improve to 21-6-2, and advance to the quarterfinal round, where they will square off with the Babson Beavers on Sunday, March 16th at 3 PM.