The game is tied at 3-3 and Oswego has the puck. They are driving deep into the Bengals’ zone and have the momentum on their side, having scored the last three goals of the game.

Aside from mostly stagnant third-period play, Oswego made one last run in regulation to break the tie and win the game. The puck is low in the faceoff ring. It crosses in front of the net and right onto the stick of Kenny Neil of the Lakers, who sends a one-timer towards the net. Neil scores.

Oswego scored four unanswered goals, including Neil’s game-winner with 44 seconds left to beat Buffalo State men’s hockey on Friday.

“It was tough to swallow,” Buffalo State goaltender Mike DeLaVergne said about the loss to Oswego. “That goal was a heartbreaker.”

Buffalo State jumped out to a 3-0 lead before Oswego erupted with the final four goals.

“It was heartbreaking,” junior captain Brett Hope said. “Losing a 3-0 lead is difficult, but we learned from what happened and we are going to continue to build on the foundation we have down right now.”

Buffalo State’s junior forward Nick Melligan put on a show and scored a hat trick, the first three goals of the game, two of which were power play goals.

Oswego cut Buffalo State’s lead to one goal during the span of two five-minute major penalties, ejections of forward Nick Berst and defenseman Ben Kramer and a two-minute holding penalty on Taylor Pryce.

“I was frustrated [when I got the penalty],” Berst said. “I didn’t want to let it show to my teammates and distract them from the game.”

Penalties played a big part in Friday’s game. Oswego had 12 total penalty minutes and Buffalo State had 16.

“It’s a team game and [the penalties] put us in a tough spot,” DeLaVergne said.

Buffalo State rebounded on Saturday with a 3-2 overtime win over Cortland.

Cortland opened up the scoring in the first period, but the Bengals would fire back in the second with forward Anthony Beaumont scoring on the power play, tying the game at 1-1 after the first period.

Another power play at the halfway point of the second period would end in the same result, a power play goal by freshman forward Jason Zaleski, to give Buffalo State a 2-1 lead.

Cortland was able to tie it in the third period and send the game into overtime.

In overtime, Buffalo State controlled the puck and got three shots on goal before Beaumont ripped a shot from the point and snuck it by Cortland goaltender Kollyn Jones three minutes into overtime to give the Bengals their first win of the season.

“I feel like we played very good on Friday [versus Oswego] and had to battle through penalty trouble,” Hope said. “Just a bad bounce for us to lose the game. Saturday [against Cortland] we didn’t play the way we wanted to, but still managed to get the two points and that’s all that matters.”

“The first game we got a lot of penalties and let that one slip away,” Berst said. “The second game we got to step it up and we really got the job done.”

The Bengals ended their SUNYAC double-header weekend with a record of 1-1. Buffalo State hosts Morrisville State in back-to-back home games Friday and Saturday at the Ice Arena. Both games will start at 7 p.m.

“We will play our game and come out on top to get a four point weekend,” DeLaVergne said.

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Twitter: @kuczkowski95