Sutter Donegan had a proper description for the emotions he felt after putting in the game-winning goal in overtime to give the Cicero-North Syracuse ice hockey team a dramatic 3-2 victory over Baldwinsville in Friday night’s Frozen Dome Classic at the Carrier Dome.
“I feel like it’s the NHL,” said Donegan. “It’s unreal.”
Much to the delight of Northstars players whooping it up in the Dome locker room minutes after Donegan slipped the puck past Bees goaltender Matt Sabourin, it was real, and joyful.
And what made it better was the way C-NS won his game, the first hockey contest ever contested at the Carrier Dome on an ice surface built in a matter of days right on top of the space where Syracuse University’s basketball teams hold court.
Trailing 2-1 since a pair of second-period goals by B’ville’s Joe Glamos, the only thing that kept the game from getting away was a tremendous effort by Northstars netminder Carson Rutkowski, who finished with 26 saves.
“The goalie can make the difference, and Carson came up big for us,” said C-NS head coach Kyle Bailey.
B’ville coach Mark Lloyd agreed. “”We had lots of chances and couldn’t bury them,” said Lloyd. “That can come back to haunt you.”
C-NS thought, perhaps, that its best chance to tie slipped away when it couldn’t capitalize on a slashing penalty to the Bees’ Connor Bertrand with 2:47 left in the third period.
But after Rutkowski went to the bench for the extra attacker in the final minute, the Northstars went all-out in its attack, and a scrum developed in front of Sabourin.
Somehow, Connor Doren, who had the honor of netting the first goal in Dome history just 2:16 into the first period, got a hold of the puck amid the pile of players and poked it just over the goal line.
That made it 2-2, and the Northstars, flush with all of the momentum, didn’t wait long in OT to end it.
The key, said Donegan, was the perfectly timed pass that Matt Siegel gave him from the right side. Once the sophomore forward broke in alone on Sabourin, he quickly had to choose how to shoot.
Donegan went top shelf, and when the puck found the net at the 44-second mark of OT (fitting, given that this was played at SU), he went to the boards and celebrated, quickly joined by all of his C-NS teammates as they celebrated the perfect cap to a memorable evening.
“Both teams played outstanding,” said Bailey. “We just got the right bounces. I couldn’t be any prouder.”
Battling a soft ice surface and plenty of early-game nerves, things settled down after Doren’s early goal. Midway through the first period, B’ville, still trailing 1-0, started applying heavy pressure.
Though it always played at even strength, the Bees kept coming in waves at the Northstars’ defenders. Only the great work of Rutkowski, who made 10 saves, kept his team in front.
Less than two minutes into the second period, though, B’ville broke through, doing so at the 1:51 mark when sophomore Joe Glamos put home his own rebound, with Matt Abbott and Adam Tretowicz getting credit for assists.
Just as the Bees’ first power play was ending at the 9:51 mark of the period, Glamos broke in alone, up the middle, and beat Rutkowski up high for his second goal, giving the Bees a 2-1 lead.
And it stayed that way for a while. Bailey said that, between the second and third period, he told his players that, in tight games, the team with the bigger heart would prevail.
As shown by Doren’s extra effort late in regulation, and Donegan’s winning dash to the net in OT, the Northstars displayed plenty of heart, one it hopes will carry over into the rest of the season, which commences Dec. 3 with a game against Mohawk Valley at Kennedy Arena in Rome.
