I honestly don’t despise the city of Plattsburgh, New York. I’ve met a few people over the years that call it home and, for the most part, they seemed like very nice and grounded folk. It’s home to its very own NBC affiliate that has historically been a competitive second in the Burlington, Vermont media market behind a still-dominant CBS affiliate that enjoys both proxemic and legacy default status.
But I’ve only set foot in the city exactly once, and it wasn’t the most pleasant experience. On an extremely cold and icy March night in 1981 (in other words, upstate New York spring), I watched my college’s hockey team, the Oswego State (then Great) Lakers lose a heartbreaking 7-6 decision to the Plattsburgh State Cardinals–the last game I covered as a student for my alma mater. My Lakers had actually been crowned champions of their conference–the SUNYAC, named for the university system it’s part of, after delivering a best-ever 24-2-1 performance. But at the time there was a superceding organization, the East Coast Athletic Conference, that held the tournament that determined who’d get to advance to the NCAAs. “Platty” thus had the chance to deny us, and they took full advantage of it.
And what made that particular game all the more eventful was the fact that Plattsburgh’s coach had been our coach just a year before. Herb Hammond, who later went on to positions with far bigger entities like Brown University and the New York Rangers, bolted our school after leading us to our first-ever men’s hockey championship the year before amidst almost complete indifference from school leadership that was far more focused on teaching the history of women’s rights than rewarding someone who was able to bring talent to a school whose greatest prominence was that they were a punch line for Johnny Carson after a massive blizzard. Watching Hammond, whom I had developed a bond with during that for-us historic season, celebrate with our arch-rivals both saddened and angered me. Had it not been for the fact our bus nearly skidded off Route 11 on no less than four separate occasions on the six-hour trip back to campus, I would have cried all the way home.
And although Oswego’s facilities and the support that it has from its adminstration have evolved over the years–its more modern home is actually named for the president who shephered its construction, Deborah F. Stanley–the rivalry with Plattsburgh has remained and grown. And lately, it’s been one-sided. The Cardinals had ended our season in both 2023 and 2024 with playoff wins. And this past Saturday, not one but two Plattsburgh hockey squads invaded “The Deb”, as the arena is known. Their women’s team was playing our squad, which set their own best-ever regular season mark, for that title and automatic bid in the afternoon. And as Plattsburgh’s associate AD Brian Savard chortled on his school’s site, things didn’t get any better for my Lakers:
The No. 8 Plattsburgh State women’s ice hockey team captured its 13th conference championship and first State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) title with a 2-0 victory over No. 5 Oswego State in the SUNYAC Tournament championship game on Saturday afternoon at the Deborah F. Stanley Ice Arena. The Cardinals controlled play in the opening stanza, holding a 14-2 edge in shots on goal. Play evened out in the second period, with Oswego beginning to generate offensive chances. Plattsburgh State finally broke the scoreless deadlock with 1:01 left in the second period. The Cardinals applied pressure on the forecheck, and Riggi blocked a clearing pass inside of the right circle. She then dove toward the net in the slot and flipped the puck past Levy blocker side.
Yep, we were shut out in our own rink. And thus began the muttered and increasingly vocal chant that serves as this musing’s title. Flip the first letters of the two words and you can figure out the meaning.
So that’s the backdrop for why what what occurred Saturday evening is so meaningful to moi. In essence, hockey is to Oswego what football is to Columbus and basketball is to Durham. And Plattsburgh is our school’s North Carolina and *ichigan.
Here’s how my school’s pedestrian website reported it:
The Oswego Lakers captured their first SUNYAC Championship since 2014 in commanding fashion, defeating Plattsburgh State 5-2 in front of a sell-out home crowd of 3,006. The Lakers wasted no time setting the tone, exploding for five first-period goals to take control of the game early.
Ryan Burke got the scoring started just 1:32 into the game, with Brandon Cohen following up shortly after at 2:11. Drake Semrad extended the lead at 13:43, and just seven seconds later, Colin Vassallo made it a four-goal game. Matt McQuade capped off the dominant first period with a power-play goal at 17:01, putting Oswego up 5-0 heading into the first intermission. Oswego’s special teams also played a key role successfully killing off all three of Plattsburgh’s chances.
An 11-year drought may not be all that lengthy, but when your arch-rival has repeatedly been its cause one can get more a little hungry. Which is why devoid of a lengthy bus trip and a much balmier climate I cried this past Saturday night, only these were tears of joy.
It almost makes up for the news that came down literally minutes ago from NCAA.com that revealed the Lakers’ first-round NCAA opponent and its bracket. For our efforts, we have been rewarded with a trip to Angola, Indiana for a road matchup against Trine University’s Thunder, an eight-year-old program that was eliminated from its conference’s tournament in a 6-1 semifinal loss to St. Norbert’s College a week prior. The NCAA continues to perceive smaller schools from the Midwest as being superior to their Eastern counterparts. And should we survive we then get to come back to New York and attempt to knock off the two-time defending champion Hobart Statesmen, who next year will be a conference rival to boot.
But at least it’s not Plattsburgh advancing. And yeah, Truck Fine and Huck Fobart may not be far off from becoming a new chant. But for now, it’s a great day to a Laker.
Courage…