No matter what happened in Monday night’s Section III Division I championship game at the Onondaga County War Memorial, the Baldwinsville ice hockey team had gone through a 2017-18 season it would not soon forget.
The memory of the Bees’ epochal four-overtime, six-shootout round sectional semifinal win over unbeaten, state no. 1-ranked West Genesee at Shove Park on Feb. 21 would linger long after high school days for the players, coaches and fans who were a part of it.
Still, B’ville badly wanted a second sectional title to go with the one it earned in 2015 – but the Syracuse Cougars denied it to them, prevailing 4-2 over the Bees.
Going in, the large question involved the Bees’ stamina, and whether the five days following that epic in Camillus was sufficient time to recover and get ready for Syracuse.
And even though the Cougars handled B’ville 4-1 two weeks earlier at Meachem Rink, it knew that winning this time around against a Bees side full of belief in itself would not be as easy.
An active opening sequence got the Cougars get in front 2:39 into the game on O’Mara’s goal, assisted by Hugh White, only to have B’ville’s Isaiah Pompo answer 19 seconds later. Syracuse immediately regained the lead at the 5:11 mark with Philip Zollo converting off feeds from Ryan Eccles and Zach Delaney.
When the Cougars were on its first power play a few minutes later, it lost the puck and B’ville’s Tanner McCaffery, whose goal won the shootout with West Genesee, skated in alone with a chance to tie it again.
But Syracuse goalie Jack Klawitter made a sliding, point-blank stop, and the Bees, try as it could the rest of the way, never got as close to tying it again.
It was still 2-1 when, 4:03 into the second period, Syracuse doubled its margin when Nate Frye’s shot from the left circle got tipped in by Ryan Durand, situated at the net.
Though under attack for most of the period, the Bees kept the Cougars from adding to that lead and then pulled back within one, 3-2, on the power play when Mark Monaco, at point-blank range, converted off a pass from the wing by Alex Schmidt.
Whatever momentum B’ville picked up from that goal dissipated in the opening minute of the third period. A penalty gave the Cougars another power play that, this time, it converted as O’Mara scored for the second time, Eccles and Jack Grooms getting the assists.
For the rest of the game, Syracuse deftly protected that margin, its defense at its strongest down the stretch as that program’s first sectional title as a Division I program was secured.
The disappointment the Bees felt at missing out on a championship was somewhat tempered by what it had already accomplished, especially in the playoffs, when it authored a defining moment at West Genesee and followed with a noble effort in the sectional final that fell just short.
