One absolute truth about the Baldwinsville ice hockey team early in the 2013-14 season is that each game has the outcome in doubt until the final horn.
Of the Bees’ first six contests, four of them were decided by a single goal, with a 5-5 tie against Ithaca also in the mix. Only a 5-3 defeat to Watertown IHC on Dec. 4 proved an exception.
So it was little surprise that B’ville’s home game against Mohawk Valley on Friday night also got decided late – very late, in this case, as a dramatic comeback produced a satisfying 4-3 overtime victory over the Raiders.
Mohawk Valley is the offshoot of the one-time Utica Proctor program, with players from Proctor mixing in with players from 10 other school districts on a combined team that plays home games at Rome’s Kennedy Arena.
To this point in the season, MV had gone 2-3, but as it came to Greater Baldwinsville Ice Arena, it eyed a chance to return to the .500 mark at the Bees’ expense.
B’ville led, 1-0, when the Raiders appeared to take over in the second period, getting all three of its goals as Cole Blocher, Austin Dreimiller and Frank Alesandro each found the net.
That was all Nick Harper would allow, the Bees goaltender settling in and, during the third period, keeping MV off the board as his total ran to 22 saves.
And B’ville cut the deficit to 3-2, only to go cold again, forcing Harper to go to the bench in the final minute for an extra attacker.
B’ville swarmed the Raiders’ net, and with 17 seconds left, David Mazurkiewicz, who hadn’t scored a goal all season, somehow poked it past MV goalie Emerson Carpenter to tie it, 3-3.
Shocked by this, the Raiders braced for overtime, but the Bees had all the momentum, and won it when Adam Tretowicz fitted a shot into the net for his second goal of the night to win it. Tretowicz also had an assist.
Garrett Gray had also scored for B’ville, adding a pair of assists. Tretowicz, Mike Schneid, Matt Abbott and Carson Hayes notched one assist apiece. Carpenter, in defeat, recorded 27 saves.
On Monday, B’ville made up a previously postponed game with Rome Free Academy at Kennedy Arena, a rematch of last year’s Section III Division I semifinal won by the Black Knights on that same ice.
Here, it would end in a 2-2 tie. Thanks to goals by Abbott and Matt Metcalf, the Bees took a 2-1 lead to the third period, but could not hang on as RFA pulled back even. Harper was brilliant in the net, stopping 33 of the 35 shots he faced, though the Black Knights’ Justin Hussey and Cameron Mecca beat him for goals.
The Bees (4-2-2) are home Dec. 30 for a rematch with Watertown IHC, preceding a trip to Cicero Twin Rinks Jan. 2 to face Fayetteville-Manlius and a Jan. 4 visit to Fairport that sets up the Jan. 7 showdown at Lysander with defending Section III champion West Genesee.
