Though many more important games remain for the Baldwinsville ice hockey team, few would be as exciting as the 2012-13 season’s curtain-raiser against Cazenovia on Friday night.
The Bees made a late comeback, exciting the home crowd at Greater Baldwinsville Ice Arena, but surrendered that hard-earned margin, leading to a 5-4 overtime loss to the Lakers.
Cazenovia, who won the state Division II championship in 2011, was eager to give B’ville a stern opening test, even though it had lost to CBA/J-D earlier in the week.
The Bees led the Lakers 2-1 through one period, only to get shut out during the second period and fall into a 3-2 deficit.
Led by Parker Ferrigan, though, B’ville staged its own rally, grabbing a 4-3 lead on Ferrigan’s go-ahead goal, his second of the night. However, Cazenovia tied it up again late in regulation and prevailed on an OT goal that eluded goalie Josh Pinard, who finished with 32 saves.
Aside from Ferrigan, Matt Zandri and David Mazurkiewicz had the other goals. Matt Abbott and Garrett Gray each had two assists, with Ronnie May and Luke McCaffrey joining Zandri in the assist column.
B’ville spends its entire early-season stretch at home, welcoming Fayetteville-Manlius to the Lysander rink on Tuesday before hosting the Bobby Conklin Memorial Tournament on the weekend, starting with Friday’s opening-round game against Corcoran and continuing Saturday against Fulton or Ithaca.
