It is year one for the Oswego Hockey Club, but that hasn’t mattered. In the inaugural season for Oswego they won the regular season conference title. Friday, January 26 at Canlan Ice Rink was a night to commemorate what the seniors have done in the first season. Oswego was taking on the Lockport Spartans, a lower end team. The first period was back and forth, the Spartans showed quickly why Oswego shouldn’t take them lightly. Oswego scored first, Nick Podlesak opened the scoring. It wasn’t long after when Podlesak netted his second of the night. Oswego may have gotten a bit too comfortable, because 21 seconds later, the Spartans got on the board to make it a game. After one period of play the senior led-Oswego team was up 2-1.
As the second period kicked-off, it didn’t take long for the scoring to open up. A minute in, Jake Culp, another senior put the puck past Spartans netminder on a nice feed from Jeremy Pietrarosso. Moments later the Dukovac brothers connected and it was suddenly 4-1 Oswego. For most of the second period, it was Oswego who controlled the tempo, the Spartans took two penalties which resulted in one power play goal for Oswego. Due to the penalties, Lockport was never able to set up, as a result they were outshot 15-2 in period two.
Period three was set to get underway with Oswego leading 5-1. The Spartans refused to quit however, they scored on a quick two on one just 51 seconds into the third. The Spartans were pushing hard trying to get back into it. They did receive a power play with eight minutes to play. As they scrambled to find a third goal, the penalty expired and fresh out of the box was Podlesak who netted a breakaway goal to complete the hattrick. It was now 6-2 Oswego. They held onto the lead until the final seconds ticked down, it was a senior night win!
After the game Nick Podlesak said “It meant a lot to be able to get the win on this special night”. When asked what getting a hat trick meant to him and he responded “It was certainly very special, I will remember this forever”. Oswego now prepares for the playoffs coming up in a few short weeks, but for now they will enjoy the senior night win.
Student Publication of Oswego High School, Oswego, IL
