While the Auburn Maroons might hold the Section III Division II boys ice hockey championship, it’s the Skaneateles Lakers that still holds the upper hand in their neighborhood rivalry.
In front of an overflow crowd at Casey Park Tuesday night, the undefeated Lakers, improving to 5-0-1 on the season, withstood a mid-game Auburn surge and finished strong, prevailing 6-3 over the Maroons.
Skaneateles knew that, in facing Auburn, there were two challenges – one involved matching the Maroons’ physical play, and the other involved trying to contain star forward Johnny Malandruccolo, who had 16 goals in his team’s first five games, including all six in an Auburn win over Cicero-North Syracuse a week earlier.
Most of the first period was scoreless, with the Lakers staying patient and waiting for open looks. It finally broke through in the last minute of the period with Charlie Major’s conversion on a power play.
It got to 2-0 in the second period on Owen Van Holtz’s goal before Auburn got on the board when Nick Pipher scored. Then Malandruccolo burned the Lakers twice in a 15-second span, putting the Maroons in front 3-2.
Absorbing all this, the Lakers maintained its discipline, which proved important when Auburn kept committing penalties. On a power play, Bauer Morrissey tied it at the 12:25 mark of the period.
Yet another Skaneateles man advantage early in the third period produced the go-ahead goal, scored by Major. Even bigger was Jack Henry stealing the puck on a Maroons power play, charging in and scoring with 11 minutes left to increase the margin to 5-3.
Frustrated, the Maroons continued to hurt itself with penalties, and when Van Holtz scored late in the period, the Lakers had clinched it, ultimately justifying the 43 shots it took to Auburn’s 22.
Morrissey, aside from his goal, picked up three assists as Henry and Cam Lowe got two assists apiece. Single assists went to Major, Van Holtz, Garrett Krieger, Charlie Russell and Colin Weeks.
Skaneateles and Auburn meet again in January at Allyn Arena. In the meantime, the Lakers would go to Meachem Rink Friday to meet reigning sectional Division I champion Syracuse, who was coming off a big 5-1 win over Baldwinsville that was a rematch of last winter’s sectional final.
This game turned into an all-out defensive battle, neither side converting until late in the third period, when the Cougars broke through just once, enough to edge the Lakers 1-0.
For the most part, Skaneateles did a superb job protecting its net, with Adam Casper turning away a host of Syracuse chances and accumulating 30 saves by night’s end.
Late in the second period, the Lakers had a four-minute power play, yet were turned back, just as it was the rest of the night thanks to a stout back line and the work of Alex Moreno, who made 23 saves.
They were still 0-0 when, with 2:54 left in regulation, the Cougars attacked again and Ryan Duran, off a feed from Philip Zollo, sent a shot past Casper into the net.
Now the Lakers would look to recover from its first defeat of the season when it hosted Clinton Tuesday at Allyn Arena, two nights before a trip to Onondaga Nation Arena to face CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt.
