Key road games on consecutive Tuesday nights would mark the passage of the West Genesee and Syracuse ice hockey teams through the latter portions of the regular season.

But while the state Division I no. 2-ranked Wildcats have to wait until this Tuesday for its long-awaited trip to Baldwinsville, the state no. 4-ranked Cougars had its big test last Tuesday, when it ventured to Allyn Arena and had reigning state Division II champion Skaneateles on the ropes before a late rally by the Lakers created a 2-2 tie.

Eager to defend that state title it earned in 2015, Skaneateles built a 12-2-1 record, with its lone defeats to Clinton and Auburn, and stood at no. 2 in the state Division II rankings after avenging that Auburn defeat 4-2 on Jan. 22.

Syracuse knew that, to beat the Lakers, it had to play tremendous defense – which it did for the first two periods, withstanding all sorts of Skaneateles attacks and killing off a string of Skaneateles power plays.

For its part, the Cougars found scoring difficult, too, but broke through at the 12:21 mark of the first period when a well-positioned Sean Eccles tipped C.J. Walsh’s shot past Skaneateles goalie Kyle Oschner.

During the second period, Syracuse committed three penalties, but killed off each Skaneateles power play. Better yet, it doubled the margin on one of those power plays when it developed a two-on-one break short-handed and Philip Zollo, taking a pass from Eccles, beat Oschner with a shot from the point.

So the third period started 2-0 in the Cougars’ favor, and goalie Jake Polacek, on his way to 28 saves, was working on a shutout. But then Skaneateles picked up its pressure and, with 8:48 left, moved within one when Syracuse could not clear the puck and Raymond Falso fed it to Reece Eddy, who scored.

Less that two minutes later, the Cougars were caught, Falso delivering the tying goal on a shot from the slot. From there, Syracuse settled down and traded opportunities with Skaneateles through the rest of regulation and the overtime period, but neither would win it.

It didn’t appear to get much easier for the Cougars two nights later when Liverpool, winners of six of seven games, visited Meachem Rink. But heartened by the way it had played at Skaneateles, the Cougars had a better result on home ice, doubling up the Warriors in a 6-3 decision.

Quickly, Syracuse went out in front, but throughout the course of the first two periods Liverpool hung around, heartened by the work of goalie Steven Kozikoski, who would finish with 25 saves.

Clinging to a 3-2 lead with one period left, Syracuse pulled away in large part sparked by Eccles, who dished out four assists and helped out the likes of Zollo and Matt Frye, who each earned a pair of goals as Zollo tacked on an assist.

Andrew Hodgens and Colby Skrupa also found the net, while Bryan O’Mara and Conrad Skrupa earned assists. Liverpool’s trio of Tom Bianchi, Richie Hart and Nate Dombroski each had one goal and one assist, but couldn’t quite overcome the work of Polacek, who had 19 saves overall.

West Genesee, who had gone 1-1 on a northern road trip the previous weekend (losing to Massena 3-1 but beating Canton 4-0), watched all this and rested before taking on Mohawk Valley Friday night at Shove Park and doing whatever it wanted against the Raiders n a 9-0 romp.

Avoiding any kind of drama, WG roared to a 3-0 first-period lead. Then it scored twice more in the second period and four times in the final period, and Marshall Winn had a career night, piling up four goals, often on passes from Jay Considine, who had four assists to go with his lone tally.

Jeff Kopek, Jack Birchler and Dan Colabufo each finished with one goal and one assist. Chris Peer picked up the other goal, with Pat McDonald and Conor Bartlett earning two assists apiece. Single assists went to Matt McDonald, Steve Anderson, Dan Holzhauer, Garrett Schnorr and Ryan Smith as WG took 45 shots to Mohawk Valley’s four.

While this was going on, Baldwinsville saw its nine-game win streak end in a 3-2 home defeat to Ithaca, the sort of result that either speaks well of WG’s chances at Lysander, or angers the Bees into a desperate, all-out effort against the visiting Wildcats.

Whatever happens there, WG is back at Shove Park to honor its four seniors – Anderson, Bartlett, Ryan McDonald and Matt McDonald – before Friday’s game against Liverpool as Syracuse plays three times this week, going to Fulton in between home games against Rome Free Academy and Watertown IHC.