Five games are in the books – and it’s five wins for the Skaneateles boys ice hockey team.
The Lakers remained unbeaten with a 3-1 win over CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt in a Division II showdown Wednesday night at Allyn Arena.
Skaneateles got goals from Mitchell Jones, Tyler Strods, and Connor Hill, and 19 saves from Ethan Kupp to up its record to 5-0 overall, and 3-0 in league play. CBA/J-D fell to 1-4 overall, and 1-2 in Division II action.
“We don’t really worry about the record,” Lakers coach Mitch Major said. “We just worry about preparing at a level we know we can and hopefully it will pay off.”
Jones put the hosts on the board 6:45 into the first period. The junior wing took a pass from Josh Kuhns and zipped a face-off circle wrist shot thought the pads of Brothers goalie Tim Decker.
Skaneateles continued to press, outshooting CBA/J-D 11-1 over the first 15 minutes, even though the margin remained at 1-0.
“It was a little disappointing start for us,” Brothers coach Mike McKie said. “We really didn’t come out with any intensity.”
The second period started out like the first. Skaneateles held an early territorial edge until it doubled its lead. This time, Strods got the goal, taking a nice wraparound pass from Owen Kuhns and sending a wrist shot high to the short side at the 1:06 mark.
CBA/J-D picked up its pace after the goal, and started to test Kupp. The Brothers found the mark on a power play at 10:33 as Scott Firman scored the simplest of goals, redirecting Ryan Durkin’s fine pass into an open net.
Instead of building on its momentum, though, CBA/J-D got caught by a sucker punch. A Brothers giveaway ended up on a Skaneateles stick, and it eventually made its way to Hill who scored from close range in the final seconds of the period.
CBA/J-D dominated the third period territorially and in shots (13-2), but the Lakers held firm.
“Our job was to hold a lead,” Major said. “I think we probably went a little too defensive, but it worked. And we’ll take the two points.”
McKie believes his team has the potential to have a lot of two-point nights this season. “We fought hard. We had some chances,” he said. “It’s frustrating but we’re going to be all right.”
Major liked the way both teams battled. “(CBA/J-D) played hard. We played hard. It’s what we thought would happen,” he said. “It was just a battle. A good physical game is always fun to watch.”
Skaneateles is not home again until Dec. 21, when it plays New Hartford. In the meantime, it has three road games, two of them next week as it visits the Morrisville State IcePlex to play Cazenovia on Tuesday and has a highly-anticipated rematch of last March’s Section III final against defending champion Oswego on Dec. 14 at Crisafulli Rink.
