Though it is making slow, incremental improvement, the Cazenovia ice hockey team still has a whole lot of work ahead until it can catch up to its Division I opposition.
At least, in last Tuesday’s game against CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt at the Morrisville State IcePlex, the Lakers had glimmers of good play amid a 6-2 defeat to the Brothers.
Having lost to Syracuse and Fulton by a combined 18-1 margin the week before, Cazenovia wanted, at the very least, to not let things get out of hand early in this game.
Through one period, CBA/J-D led 2-0, but the Lakers cut that margin in half five minutes into the second period when George Labinski found the net, assisted by Jack Donlin.
Barely a minute later, though, the Brothers answered to make it 3-1, added two more goals 26 seconds apart late in the period to double that margin.
At least Cazenovia played the third period on even terms, with Donlin getting a goal, assisted by James LeFever and James Dapson.
All through the game, goalie Cy McCrink made a series of big stops, ending with 35 saves. Kodi Dotterer led CBA/J-D with a three-goal hat trick as Lesser Simon had a goal and three assists.
Then the Lakers took on Auburn Dec. 21 at the Morrisville State College IcePlex, and though it twice found the scoreboard, it still lost 5-2 to the Maroons.
Auburn had played the night before against Division I contender Baldwinsville and pushed that game to overtime before ending in a 1-1 tie, yet still had energy left over to take an early lead against Cazenovia and hang on from there.
Cazenovia has games this Friday and Saturday against Shenendehowa and Saratoga Springs as part of Cortland-Homer’s holiday tournament at the J.M. McDonald Sports Complex.
