ONONDAGA COUNTY – In consecutive weeks, both of the area’s ice hockey teams would offer robust challenges to the reigning state Division I champions from West Genesee.
Cicero-North Syracuse went first, and helped in no small way by the goaltending of Leyton Sullivan, it pulled out a 1-1 with the Wildcats on Jan. 4 at the Twin Rinks.
The Northstars jumped out of the gate by taking the game’s first eight shots and answered a power-play goal from Nick Meluni with a short-handed tally from Tyler Milewski in the final seconds of the first period.
From there, Sullivan took over. He stopped all 15 WG shots he faced in the second period and kept it going late in the third period, thwarting Vormwold on a last-minute breakaway to send it to overtime.
Then, as time ran out in OT, Sullivan again came through, stopping Desena and Ball point-blank for his 39th and 40th saves to preserve the tie.
Eight days later, it was the turn of CNY Fusion, the combined Liverpool-Fulton entry, who took its surprising 6-2-1 record to Shove Park to face a WG side just off two close games that it split, beating Baldwinsville 2-1 but losing 3-2 to Victor the night before.
It turned into another tense, exciting defensive battle, with Trevor Smith just about equaling what Solomon did, stopping 39 of the 40 shots he faced from the Wildcats, only allowing Jacob Pensabene’s second-period goal.
Yet that was enough for WG to prevail 1-0, for though Fusion had ample opportunities of its own all night, none of its 26 shots got past WG goalie Luke Beck
C-NS, meanwhile, had its game with Ontario Bay last Tuesday night postponed by winter weather that caused massive power outages in the north country.
But the Northstars were back in action two nights later, hosting Watertown IHC, and while it was far from a flawless effort, C-NS still defeated the Cavaliers 3-1 to improve its overall record to 6-4-3.
As Fusion takes on state no. 8-ranked Rome Free Academy in between games with Ontario Bay and Geneseo, C-NS has back-to-back games scheduled with Mohawk Valley and Syracuse this week.
