SYRACUSE — Garrett Gray was a big part of the reason why the Baldwinsville ice hockey team found itself pushed by Syracuse to overtime in Tuesday night’s Section III Division I semifinal at Meachem Rink, so it only figured that he would pull them out of it.
With 5:42 left in the second extra period, Gray’s breakaway goal delivered, for the Bees, a 4-3 victory over the Cougars and a chance to win its second consecutive sectional title this Sunday at Utica Memorial Auditorium.
Three different times in regulation, the Bees went in front. Every time, Syracuse came back to tie it, but it was Gray having the final say as he put one past Cougars goalie Jake Polacek to end it.
“He’s just a pure scorer,” said B’ville head coach Mark Lloyd. “He wants to be a big part of our success.”
That the game centered around Gray’s contributions wasn’t a surprise. He wasn’t in the lineup back on Dec. 4, when B’ville lost, 5-0, to Syracuse at Lysander Arena in the opening round of the Bobby Conklin Memorial Tournament.
Nearly three months later, with the Cougars having built an 18-2-1 record and rolled past Liverpool 6-2 in the opening round of the sectional tournament, B’ville, with Gray on hand, tried to follow up its 5-0 playoff shutout of Fayetteville-Manlius – and it wouldn’t prove easy.
For much of the first period, Syracuse was on the attack, but couldn’t get anything past Bees goalie Matt Sabourin. Then, 37 seconds before intermission, Gray got open in front of the net and converted to put his team up 1-0 as Isaiah Pompo and Matt Monaco earned the assists.
This didn’t faze the Cougars, who tied it, 1-1, early in the second period on Colby Skrupa’s power-play goal, assisted by Matt Eccles and Matt Frye. But B’ville reclaimed the lead at the 11:20 mark on its own man advantage when Matt Metcalf tipped in Connor Carhart’s floating shot.
continued — All of this was prelude to a third period where the momentum continued to swing back and forth, first with the Cougars tying it a second time, 2-2, when Ryan Eccles converted with 12:55 to play.
Not even three minutes later, with the Bees again on the power play, Pompo, from the right boards, found Metcalf wide-open in front of the net, and he beat Polacek to give B’ville its third lead of the night.
When the Bees earned another man advantage, Polacek recovered to stop Metcalf point-blank to prevent him from a hat trick, and gradually Syracuse resumed its all-out assault on Sabourin.
Amid this attack, Gray, with 3:48 left, committed a penalty. It took the Cougars just 19 seconds to capitalize on it as Conrad Skrupa beat Sabourin and, for the third time, Syracuse had tied the game.
When regulation ended 3-3, the Cougars had all the momentum and, as Lloyd put it, “we were really tired.” But he added that having Sabourin in the net helped his team persevere.
“We have faith in our goalie that he can make the big stop.”
Sabourin did just that, more than once, in the first seven-minute, 30-second OT period. Then, early in the second OT, Syracuse got another opportunity to win it when Matt Eccles charged in from the right side and took a hard shot that Sabourin deflected over the net with his glove. It was his 33rd save of the night.
Seconds later, Metcalf picked up the puck along the boards and slid a long pass to the middle while most of the Cougars were still in the Bees’ end. Gray took it in mid-stride and bore in on Polacek.
“I protected the puck with my stick, and then tried to bury it,” said Gray.
Indeed, Gray’s point-blank shot found the top corner of the net, and the Bees were back in the sectional final – and a day later, B’ville found out that West Genesee would face them after the Wildcats pulled away late to beat Cicero-North Syracuse 6-0 in the other semifinal.
The Bees lost at Shove Park in December, but rallied to tie WG 2-2 on Feb. 2 at Lysander Arena. Their third encounter takes place Sunday at 2:15 at Utica Memorial Auditorium following the sectional Division II final between Skaneateles and New Hartford.