LYSANDER – Poised as the no. 2 seed for the Section III Division I playoffs, the Baldwinsville ice hockey team knew that all it needed to do was win at home twice to get a shot at the championship.
The post-season journey commenced Thursday at Three Rivers Athletic Complex with the Bees taking on no. 7 seed Fayetteville-Manlius in the quarterfinal round and having to go all 51 minutes to fight its way to a 4-2 victory over the Hornets.
F-M had defeated Fulton by that same 4-2 margin in the opening round two nights earlier and had contained the Bees well when the two teams met early in December, even tough B’ville won that game 3-0.
Now they met with the Bees missing its top scorer, Matt Carner, and without him B’ville’s attack would find it difficult to string anything together in the first two periods.
Brayden Penafeather-Stevenson had converted in the first period, and that lingered until the second period, when Owen Capriotti scored and pulled F-M even, 1-1, where it stayed at the end of the second.
Much of what the Bees tried against Hornets goalie Chris Finger wasn’t working, and as the third period got underway, the fear of an upset of the state’s no. 5-ranked team at the expense of a 7-12 opponent was real.
It only took a few seconds, though, for B’ville to regain control, Trevor Sutton netting the go-ahead goal and Matt Fawwaz getting his turn to make it 3-1.
F-M still didn’t withdraw, Jack Lalik reducing the margin to one, but the Bees able to preserve that lead in the closing minutes as Keegan Lynch added a last-second empty-net goal.
Lynch was one of five Bees to earn assists, joining Garrett Church, Sam Ciappa, Reese Gilmore and Cole Schuyler in this category. Patrick Morgan made 27 saves as Hornets counterpart Chris Finger amassed 42 saves.
Before all this, B’ville had seen its 17-game unbeaten streak ended by reigning state Division II champion Sknaeateles last Tuesday at Allyn Arena, the Lakers prevailing 5-2 over the Bees.
The two sides agreed to this match-up after other games had been canceled, and Skaneateles got the jump, taking a 2-0 lead by the end of the first period and never getting caught.
Nick Cary and Reese Gilmore would put in goals later in the game, with Sam Ciappa, Cole Schuyler and Jimmy Reynolds earning one assist apiece as Jon Schirmer finished with 34 saves.
But the Lakers never let the Bees catch up, Nick Renaud earning a three-goal hat trick plus an assist as Henry Major added a goal and two assists and Andrew Falkenberg also got two assists.
The win over F-M meant that B’ville host state no. 7-ranked Cazenovia in this Thursday’s sectional semifinal, the Lakers have romped past Ontario Bay 11-0 in its quarterfinal game. The winner goes to Monday’s sectional title game at Upstate Medical Arena against the winner of Wednesday’s West Genesee-Syracuse semifinal at Shove Park.
