A dominant run to last winter’s state Division II championship has not dulled the competitive edge of the Skaneateles boys ice hockey team – or at least that’s what the early results indicate.
Knocking off two visiting opponents by a combined 12-2 margin, the Lakers showed that it is capable, in all phases of the game, of maintaining the extremely high level that left most of the teams it faced in 2018-19 far behind.
While it was true that some key players from that state title team (Luke Lynn, Owen Van Holtz, Jimmy Liberatore, Ryan Gick and Chris Falso) graduated, Skaneateles brought back a large returning cast, too.
And in Wednesday night’s season opener against CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt at Allyn Arena, the Lakers got a career-best performance from junior Cole Heintz in a 7-1 win over the Brothers.
A 2-0 first-period margin tripled as Skaneateles scored four more times, unanswered, in the second period. All the while, Heintz kept getting open and converting, eventually putting in four goals.
Ninth-grader Charlie Major scored twice, with Cam Lowe earning the other goal. Garrett Krieger and Drew Henderson had two assists apiece as single assists went to Jack Henry, Charlie Russell, Luke Renaud and Colin Weeks.
That served as a prelude to Friday’s visit from Cortland-Homer, whom Skaneateles beat in the Section III Division II final last February at the War Memorial with a big early-game scoring burst.
Here, as it did against CBA/J-D, the Lakers would get a pair of first-period goals, and with steady work the rest of the way, plus a nice scoring balance, Skaneateles handled Cortland-Homer 5-1.
Held without a point in the opener, Jacob French emerged as a threat for the Lakers by scoring twice, with the other goals going to Krieger, Russell and Brendan Powers.
Again, the Lakers’ defense kept an opponent off the board until the third period as Heintz produced two assists and Lowe, Henry, Tom Coyne and Jack Donovan also earned assists.
Things pick up further for Sknaeateles next week when the reigning state Division I champion Syracuse Cougars visit and, two nights later, West Genesee pays a visit to Allyn Arena.
While WG would not open until a Tuesday trip to Ithaca, Syracuse would begin its season by returning last weekend to the Buffalo area, not far from the HaborCenter where it beat Suffern back in March to earn the program’s first-ever state title.
Tested right away, the Cougars passed it on Friday with a 3-2 overtime victory over West Seneca West. Syracuse got the jump in the first period, leading the Indians 2-0 thanks to goals by Tommy Rioux and Kaleb Benedict, the latter of them assisted by Ryan Durand and Steve Matro.
West Seneca West stormed back in the third period to pull even, 2-2, but in the OT period Luke Dwyer, who had assisted on Rioux’s goal, put in the game-winner
Then, in Saturday’s game against another Section VI opponent, Williamsville North, the Cougars lost, 4-1, to the Spartans, getting its lone goal from Benedict in the first period.
