As amazing as the West Genesee ice hockey team’s 20-0 regular season was, it only was a prelude to the bigger prizes that lay ahead.
In the Section III Division I playoffs, the Wildcats look for a third consecutive title, and are now one victory from attaining that goal.
The home fans at Shove Park in Camillus got at least one more chance to witness their favorites Friday night — and WG didn’t disappoint, shoving around Liverpool in an 8-1 romp over the Warriors.
Just getting to this round required Liverpool to make a late-season surge, then go to Auburn last Tuesday and prevail 3-1 in a play-in game. And now came the Wildcats, who would waste little time establishing its dominance once more.
Camping out in the Warriors’ end, WG ended up with five goals in the first period alone, stretched the margin out to 7-0 by the second intermission and cruised from there.
Adam King, with a three-goal hat trick plus an assist, led the attack, as Ryan Michel and Erich Haney each had a goal and two assists, and Tim Bubnack produced three assists.
Behind them, Shawn Linch, Robbie Michel and Seamus Shanley scored, too, while Erik Kurz, Josh Duquette, Zach Lewis, Ryan LaVallee and Casey Schattner got assists. Even goaltender Anthony Militello got credit for an assist, too.
This leads to a familiar Division I final match-up Friday at 7 p.m. at Allyn Arena in Skaneateles, as WG will face Baldwinsville –the team it beat for the title a year ago in the Syracuse War Memorial.
B’ville upended Oswego 3-2 in the other semifinal, pushed there by goaltender Mark Miller and his 39 saves as Mike McElwain scored the game-winner in the third period. Of course, WG won both meetings with the Bees in the regular season — 6-0 on Dec. 1 at Shove Park, then 4-0 at Lysander Arena on Jan. 15.
