Much of the winter will pass before the West Genesee and Syracuse ice hockey teams will meet up with each other in a pair of late-season clashes one week apart – Jan. 28 at Meachem Rink, then Feb. 4 at Shove Park.
In the meantime, each side had a lot of work to do, with the Wildcats trying to recover from the rare instance of a rough (1-3-1) start and the Cougars resuming action after a nine-day break.
WG visited the north country last Wednesday night amid a two-game skid thanks to back-to-back losses to Scarsdale and Ithaca on Dec. 12 and 13, but broke out of those doldrums by routing Watertown IHC 8-1 at the Haldane Memorial Building Arena.
What was a close contest broke open in the second period, when the Wildcats, up 1-0, struck for four unanswered goals, maintaining the shutout until Jordan Trudeau’s third-period tally and taking 54 shots to the Cavaliers’ nine.
Matt McDonald, with three assists, and Pat McDonald, with two assists, anchored WG’s diverse attack, where six different players scored goals.
Ryan McDonald and Jay Considine each found the net twice, with Conor Bartlett, Patrick Ciarla, Marshall Winn and Ryan Constance adding one goal apiece. Winn, Considine, Ciarla, David Procopio, Ethan Smith and Stephen Anderson earned single assists.
Still steaming from its 4-2 loss to Baldwinsville in the Dec. 6 final of the Bobby Conklin Memorial Tournament, Syracuse, when play resumed last Monday night at Cicero Twin Rinks, unleashed its attack on an overmatched Fayetteville-Manlius side in an 11-0 romp.
Already up 3-0 through one period, the Cougars peaked in the second frame, where it found the net six times and then passed double digits in the late going, taking 46 shots overall.
Derek Eccles managed a three-goal hat trick, with Matt Eccles and Matt Frye each scoring twice. Andrew Hodgens and Dan Hodgens both had one goal and one assist, while Mark Purcell and Bryan O’Mara got two assists apiece. Andrew Katko and Conrad Skrupa earned single goals. Brandon McPeak and Colby Skrupa also had assists.
Remarkably, the Cougars won by the same 11-goal margin on Thursday night, when it went to Fulton and smashed the Red Raiders 14-3 at Fulton Ice Arena.
At first, there was no indication of the blowout, with Syracuse only gaining a 2-1 edge through one period. But in each of the next two periods, the Cougars unleashed its attack again, finding the net six times in each of those frames.
All told, in five games Syracuse has put up 47 goals, averaging better than nine goals per outing, something that will get challenged Monday night when it hosts 5-0-1 CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt in a non-league classic at Meachem.