Even if the Cicero-North Syracuse ice hockey team made a prolonged push through the Section III Division I playoffs, it might not top the excitement and emotion it felt rallying for a 3-2 overtime victory over Baldwinsville in the first-ever hockey game played in the Carrier Dome on Nov. 21.
More than two months later, the two sides reunited in the more modest setting of Lysander’s Greater Baldwinsville Ice Arena, with the Bees by now the dominant team in the Division I National Conference, yet still remembering the hurt of that Dome defeat.
And that, combined with the emotions on B’ville’s Senior Night, proved far too much for C-NS to handle, as it was overwhelmed in the first two periods of a 10-1 defeat to the Bees.
Any notion that this game would carry the tension and suspense of the Frozen Dome Classic quickly got dashed, C-NS getting a goal from Connor Doren in the first period, but still seeing B’ville dominate the flow of play and constantly finding the net for a 4-1 lead.
Far from content, the Bees then blitzed C-NS again in the second period, continuing the parade of trips to the net, but also managing a shutout as the margin got to 9-1, well out of reach, Matt Sabourin working his way to stop 26 of the 27 shots he faced on the night.
Between them, Carson Rutkowski and Chris Burger made 33 saves overall. Kyle Lindsay, Joe Glamos and Adam Tretowicz anchored the B’ville offense, each of them with three assists. Glamos scored twice, as did Charlie Bertrand.
Back on Tuesday night, C-NS went to Casey Park to face defending sectional Division II champion Auburn and were quite competitive, but still lost 6-4 to the Maroons.
Auburn had just seen its nine-game win streak ended Jan. 30 by CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt, and despite struggling on the defensive side, it managed to turn back C-NS’s challenge, using four goals in the second period to break out of a 1-1 tie as Kaiden Tubbert led the Maroons with three goals and one assist.
For its part, C-NS saw Mike Sciore have a role in all four of the team’s scoring plays, netting a goal and assisting three times. Sutter Donegan benefited from those passes, scoring twice, while Matt Siegel had one goal and one assist. Josh Ludden and Zach Sheridan also had assists.
Liverpool, trying to get back to the .500 mark, did so in last Wednesday’s game against Mohawk Valley at Rome’s Kennedy Arena, surging late to pull away and beat the Raiders 4-0.
It marked the second time the Warriors had shut out MV this winter, having done so by a 3-0 margin at Lysander on Dec. 5. For a while, the rematch was a lot closer, Liverpool not getting on the board until the second period, and only leading 1-0 going into the last frame.
But in that third period, the Warriors got away, finding the net three times as the pressure of taking 44 shots on Raiders goalie Emerson Carpenter paid off.
Tom Bianchi had two goals, with Joey Benedetto and Tyler Garofalo each scoring once. Donny Husted, Nate Bittel, Riley Thompson and Bobby Welch each had one assist, and the defense limited MV to 22 shots, all of which Steven Kozikoski would stop.
Back home at Lysander, the Warriors faced Rome Free Academy Friday night, both teams fighting for second place in the Division I National Conference, which carries with it the chance to host a first-round post-season game.
Here, Liverpool, like C-NS did at B’ville, got flattened, the Black Knights beating the Warriors 9-1 in a game where the Warriors’ lone goal came from Husted in the second period, assisted by Richie Hart.
From there, though, it was all Black Knights, who overcame 41 combined saves from Kozikoski and Noah Langdon by seeing Jaxon Rutkowski earn three goals and one assist, with J.T. Entelisano contributing two goals and four assists.
