Whether the Cazenovia ice hockey team would get to stay at home at the Morrisville State IcePlex for the first round of the Section III Division II playoffs would largely depend on what it did when it visited Clinton last Friday night.
The Lakers and Warriors were two points apart in the National Conference standings. A win, or tie, would lock up Cazenovia’s second-place finish in the league behind New Hartford.
Not caring about the tie, the Lakers would go into Clinton Arena and get off to a strong start, not allowing the Warriors to recover and winning by a score of 4-2.
Collin McGaugh put Cazenovia on the board in the first period, and the defense contained Clinton, especially on a power play where Brendan Whalen got loose and, on a breakaway, produced a short-handed goal that made it 2-0 at intermission.
Given all kinds of momentum, the Lakers kept going in the second period, making it 3-0 on Matt Mistur’s goal early in that frame. Then Jake Stowell made it 4-0 in the third period before Clinton’s pair of late goals, which proved futile.
Two nights earlier, at the IcePlex, Cazenovia hosted Fayetteville-Manlius and got well-timed scoring plays to beat the Hornets by that same 4-2 margin.
Trailing 1-0 in the early going, the Lakers pulled even on Alex Marshall’s goal, and then moved out in front when, with 54 seconds left in the first period, Jake Lewis scored.
Lewis wasn’t done, either. After F-M tied the game 2-2 in the second period, the junior forward sent a pretty pass to Jake Stowell, who scored what turned out to be the game-winner. McGaugh would tack on an insurance goal in the late going.
These wins pushed Cazenovia back above the .500 mark (9-8-1), as it would visit Oswego Tuesday and then host Mohawk Valley in Saturday’s regular-season finale, knowing it won’t be the last game the Lakers will have at the IcePlex this winter.
