OSWEGO, N.Y. – The nationally-ranked Oswego State men's ice hockey team has one home game this weekend, hosting the Nazareth College Golden Flyers at 7 p.m. on Saturday in the Marano Campus Center Arena. It is Employee Appreciation night for the wonderful faculty and staff of SUNY Oswego and is just one of five remaining regular season home games for the Lakers.

Oswego continues to be ranked highly by both national polls, coming in at No. 5 for D3hockey.com and USCHO. The Lakers enter the nonconference matchup at 10-3-1 overall while the Golden Flyers having a solid campaign at 7-5-2. Since Nazareth added men's ice hockey for the 2012-13 season, the two programs have met seven times, with Oswego owning the series record, 5-2-0.  Last year, the teams split a pair of contests, with Nazareth winning 3-0 on the last day of 2016 at the Norwich University Tournament. Less than two weeks later, the Lakers returned the favor with a shut out of their own, 8-0, on the road.

It is no surprise these teams have played so often since the beginning of Nazareth's program. The Golden Flyers located in nearby Rochester and their head coach is former Laker leader behind the bench, George Roll. From 1996 until 2003, Roll went 118-74-16 in 208 games at the helm of the program. For each of those seven seasons, current Laker head coach, Ed Gosek, was an assistant under Roll. When Roll left to take over Division I Clarkson University, Gosek was elevated to the position he has held for the past 15 seasons, the second-longest tenured coach for the program behind only Don Unger's 16-year run.

In national team statistics, Oswego is ranked higher in nearly every category, except penalty-kill percentage. Nazareth has successfully killed penalties at 85.14 compared to the Lakers' 84.62, less than a percentage point difference between the two. Despite Oswego's edge in most statistical areas, familiarity between the teams and the coaching staff should ensure a tight, high intensity tilt.

To catch the action, tickets are available at the box office, by phone at 315-312- 3073 or online at tickets.oswego.edu.