Confronted with its first real crisis of the season, the West Genesee ice hockey team proved up to the task.
The Division I-leading Wildcats trailed second-place Fayetteville-Manlius after two periods of last Tuesday night’s duel at the Cicero Twin Rinks, which the Hornets use as its home ice. And this came on the heels of WG losing to Gates-Chili on Jan. 3 at Shove Park, which broke up a season-opening 12-game win streak.
But in a display of championship mettle, the Wildcats’ offense came back to life in the third period, just in time to register a huge 2-1 victory.
As WG romped through its early schedule, F-M quietly built its own nine-game unbeaten streak, going 8-0-1 and settling into second place in Division I before falling to Cortland/Homer in a non-league game on Dec. 30.
In this, one of the biggest games the history of the young Hornets program, F-M brought a stingy defense that kept WG in check through a scoreless first period.
When the breakthrough came, in the second period, it was F-M delivering the goal, Matt Esposito scoring unassisted. As the period ended, the Wildcats trailed, 1-0, and now needed to show its competitive heart.
The spark came from an unexpected source. Casey Schattner, seeing more ice time in recent weeks, proved his worth in a big way by notching the tying goal less than a minute into the third period, with top defender Ryan Michel earning the assist.
Midway through the period, Schattner struck again, this time passing it to Erich Haney, whose shot eluded Mike Poppleton and found the net to put WG in front.
Poppleton was superb most of the night, finishing with 31 saves, but those two goals would hold up. Michel and the rest of the Wildcats’ defense again used their puck possession and shot-blocking to preserve the lead, as goalie Evan Mazzoni finished with 13 saves.
WG comes back home to Shove Park Friday night to face Oswego.