Wins were difficult to find for the Cazenovia ice hockey team a season ago, though with a fourth-place finish in the Division II American Conference it still sneaked into the Section III playoffs.
Now, in 2017-18, the Lakers are quickly finding out what still needs to get worked on, as it was kept off the board in last Wednesday night’s season opener at Whitesboro, who had already played twice, splitting those games.
The 3-0 defeat saw Cazenovia goaltender Logan Palmer make 34 saves. And it was 0-0 until the second period, when the Warriors broke through with a single goal.
Two more tallies followed in the third period, Whitesboro getting two assists from Luke Hyer as Andrei Terenzetti, Declan Simmons and Andrew Maycock earned the goals and all 15 of the Lakers’ shots were stopped by Jacob Domagal.
Now, for Cazenovia, it was on to Lysander Ice Arena to participate in Baldwinsville’s Bobby Conklin Memorial Tournament.
In the opening round last Friday night, the Lakers faced Fulton, and not only did it get on the board for the first time this season, it also won, edging past the Red Raiders 2-1.
That led to Saturday’s final against the Syracuse Cougars, who had tied host Baldwinsville 1-1 but had prevailed in a shoot-out to advance to the title game.
Syracuse proved too good, defeating the Lakers 4-1. Despite a second-period goal by Trey Schug and 39 saves from Palmer, the Lakers saw the Cougars go in front 2-1 and then pull away late behind big efforts from Ryan Eccles (three assists) and Bryan O’Mara (two goals, one assist).
So Cazenovia had a 1-2 record going into Thursday’s trip to Allyn Arena to face defending sectional Division II champion Skaneateles, the preamble to a Dec. 12 home opener against CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt at the Morrisville State IcePlex.
