All is now lined up for the Syracuse and West Genesee ice hockey teams to clash again for the Section III Division I championship if they both take care of post-season business twice on home ice.
The Cougars have the top seed and the Wildcats the no. 2 seed for the sectional tournament, and will host quarterfinals late this week at Meachem Rink and Shove Park. Wins mean they will also be home for the Feb. 26 semifinal round.
In order to win the regular-season league title, Syracuse had to win both of its remaining games last week, and did so, first handling Cicero-North Syracuse 9-1, and then blanking Baldwinsville 4-0 last Thursday.
What made the win over B’ville particularly sweet was that Syracuse had lost to the Bees 3-2 in the Dec. 7 final of the Bobby Conklin Tournament. Two months later, the result was quite different.
Ryan Durand twice set up goals two minutes apart in the first period, setting up Kaleb Benedict’s wraparound effort and then feeding it to Stephan Matro, who scored to make it 2-0.
Early in the second period, Tommy Rioux made it 3-0, and Durand himself scored in the final period as Benedict, Nelson Jones and Nick Richards each got one assist.
Defensively, the Cougars bottled up B’ville, holding it to 15 shots, all stopped by Alex Moreno, who had returned to the net after missing much of the season due to injury.
Prior to that, the Cougars handled C-NS at the Twin Rinks, using three goals late in the first period to break out of a 1-1 tie.
Benedict, with three goals and one assist, led the way as Vern Cooke scored twice and Durand picked up three assists. Jones had a goal and two assists.
Matro, Colin Johnson and Cam Walsh also put in goals, with assists going to Richards, Luke Dwyer and Shemar Thomas
West Genesee, meanwhile, honored its seniors prior to last Tuesday’s game against visiting Ontario Bay, and then proceeded to blast the Storm 9-0.
Building up an 8-0 advantage through two periods, the Wildcats saw James Schneid earn a three-goal hat trick, plus an assist as Billy Fisher got two goals and three assists and Andrew Schneid had four assists.
Jeremy Keyes also scored twice, adding a pair of assists as Joe McLaughlin and Alex DeSantis had the other goals. Jake Kopek got two assists. Single assists went to Ryan Considine, Michael Bergan and Will Shields.
Even with this, WG needed a win at Fulton 24 hours later to keep the pressure on Syracuse, and it got that victory, keeping the Red Raiders off the board in a 4-0 shutout.
Goals by Keyes and James Schneid has the Wildcats in front 2-0 through two periods, and it doubled that margin thanks to a pair of third-period goals by Fisher, which helped overcome 46 saves by Fulton goalie Jadon Lee.
Andrew Schneid piled up three assists, James Schneid getting two assists and McLaughlin a single assist. WG’s defense held the Red Raiders to just five shots.
Despite these fine efforts, the Wildcats could not keep the Cougars from earning the regular-season title, though the bigger games still remain.
After Tuesday’s opening round of the sectional playoffs, where no. 8 seed Liverpool faces no. 9 seed Cicero-North Syracuse and no. 7 seed CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt meets no. 10 seed Cazenovia, the lowest remaining seed draws Syracuse in the quarterfinals, and the other winner takes on WG.
