All of that down time may have caught up to the Skaneateles boys ice hockey team.
Between Dec. 19, when it beat Auburn, and last Wednesday night’s 3-2 overtime defeat to New Hartford, the Lakers had played just twice in a 25-day span, when it won the Duke Schneider Memorial Tournament on the first weekend of 2015.
The first long rest period, between Auburn and the Schneider tournament, was built into the schedule, to give Skaneateles, who had risen to no. 2 in the state Division II rankings, a proper breather before a busy January slate.
But then the Lakers’ trip to Haldane to face Ontario Bay, got postponed twice in the week after the Schneider tournament, leaving Skaneateles with an unscheduled 11-day gap between starts.
Put simply, Skaneateles had not seen a lot of on-ice competition for the span of a full month before it made that trip to face a state no. 8-ranked New Hartford side that, exactly one week earlier (on Jan. 7), had handed then-unbeaten CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt its first loss of the season, a 2-1 decision.
But the Spartans had also got humbled at Auburn with a 4-2 defeat two days later, caught looking ahead to its showdown with the Lakers, so no one, on either side, knew what to expect when the two sides met on the small New Hartford Recreation Center ice surface.
What they got was a 0-0 stalemate that lasted through two periods. With plenty of rust to shake off, the Lakers’ attack could not get going, and even when it did break through New Hartford’s defenses, goaltender Tyler Hansen, who finished with 23 saves, made the stops.
Skaneateles was strong on the defensive side, too, and kept the game scoreless until early in the third period, when New Hartford saw Zach Cole score one goal and assist on the other, by Garrett Mahoney, to put the hosts in front 2-0.
This seemed to awaken the Lakers’ attack, and it went all-out down the stretch. Raymond Falso scored with 6:50 left, and not stopping there, Falso returned to beat Hansen for the tying goal with 2:29 to play in regulation. Owen Kuhns, Patrick Major and Cullen McGlynn all earned assists.
Now the game was in a five-minute overtime period. Resuming its push, New Hartford applied the pressure and Evan Strassberger, who had assisted on one of his team’s earlier goals, took a pass from Cole and pushed home the game-winner.
So began a stretch of five games in eight days for Skaneateles, which continued Friday back at Allyn Arena against Cazenovia, a Laker duel that didn’t go smoothly at first, but ultimately turned in the host’s favor as Skaneateles prevailed by a 4-1 margin.
Both sides battled for the puck until, near the midway point of the first period, Brendan Whalen scored to give Cazenovia a 1-0 lead. It held until the 11:02 mark of the period, when Falso evened it up for Skaneateles.
Just 34 seconds into the second period, Cazenovia had a power play, but Kuhns stole the puck, passed to Major and saw Major beat Ryan McCann for the go-ahead goal. Again, special teams hurt the visitors when, with 1:32 left in the second period, Reggie Buell scored on the power play.
McCann had a strong night in the net, recording 33 saves and keeping Cazenovia within sight, but Skaneateles put things away when Buell found the net for a second time with less than five minutes left.
Major and Kuhns both had two assists, with Devil Callahan and Sam Clymer adding one assist apiece and Jarrett McDonald, in goal, stopping 15 of the 16 shots he face.
A night later, at Cortland-Homer, the Lakers handled the Golden Eagles 7-0, starting and finishing fast with three goals in both the first and third periods.
What’s more, seven different players got those goals – Falso, Kuhns, Callahan, Major, McGlynn, Ben Russell and Matt Benson. Kuhns, Russell and Buell each got a pair of assists, with single assists credited to McGlynn, Falso, Clymer, Reece Eddy, James Motyl and Matt Leveroni.
On Tuesday night, Skaneateles heads up to Crisafulli Rink (better known as “The Fort”) to face Oswego before a non-league game Thursday night at Meachem Rink against the state Division I no. 8-ranked Syracuse Cougars.
