For most of Friday night’s game at Onondaga Nation Arena, the CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt ice hockey team put together the effort it needed to defeat Skaneateles and clinch the Division II American Conference regular-season championship.
And then it all disappeared.
With a stunning late third-period rally, the Lakers forced overtime, and when Matt Benson scored with 1:23 left in the extra period, Sknaeateles had snatched a 3-2 victory that may ultimately change the Brothers’ post-season course.
When they had first met Dec. 17 at Allyn Arena, the Lakers and Brothers played to a 3-3 tie, Skaneateles controlling the game for long stretches, but unable to constantly put the puck past CBA/J-D goaltender Gabe Vinal, who made 37 saves.
And for a long while, the rematch looked like it would carry a better fate for the Brothers. It was Senior Night for a group of six CBA/J-D players, all of whom were part of the Brothers’ surprising run to the 2013 state Division II championship as sophomores. Two years later, they had no intention of turning their last regular-season game end in defeat.
Vinal set the tone during a scoreless first period, stopping all eight Skaneateles shots he faced. Then, 3:34 into the second period, one of those CBA/J-D seniors, Lucas Relkin, took a pass from fellow senior Ryan Durkin and sent a hard wrist shot past Bennett Morse for the game’s first goal.
Despite plenty of chances, the Lakers could not answer, and things got better for CBA/J-D when, with just 17.7 seconds left in the period, Durkin sent a shot from the right point between Morse’s pads and into the net, doubling the lead to 2-0.
By the middle of the third period, Vinal had 23 saves, but Skaneateles gradually picked up its pressure, figuring that any scoring play could turn the tide. And it did.
With 5:46 left, Reece Eddy, off a feed from Reggie Buell, finally put one past Vinal and made it 2-1. Barely two minutes later, from nearly the same spot on the ice on the right circle, Owen Kuhns slapped home the tying goal.
But then Kuhns took a hooking penalty with 1:31 to play. For the entire remaining portion of regulation time, CBA/J-D circled the Skaneateles net, taking multiple shots, but they either flew wide, or into Morse’s glove.
Overtime was an intense, back-and-forth battle as the large crowd in Nedrow rode the emotional tidal wave. Then Ben Russell, on that familiar right side, sent a one-time pass to Benson in front of the net and, at point-blank range, Benson flung the puck past Vinal for the game-winner.
Before all this, CBA/J-D nearly fell into a classic trap in last Tuesday’s game at Cortland-Homer before escaping with a 4-2 victory over the Golden Eagles.
The Brothers had put a lot into ending Auburn’s nine-game win streak 6-3 on Jan. 30. Given that, it was quite easy to overlook a Cortland-Homer side stuck in last place in the American division and carrying a 5-8-1 mark into the game.
But the Golden Eagles didn’t lay down. Instead, it scored less than two minutes into the first period and blanked CBA/J-D the rest of that frame, Tyler Wallace stopping all 10 shots he faced.
It took Relkin’s goal early in the second period, on the power play, to tie it, 1-1. And even after Relkin scored again on the power play late in the period, Cortland-Homer answered in the last minute to make it 2-2 going to the second intermission.
Though it was playing far from its best game, CBA/J-D maintained its energy and, with 9:40 left in regulation, took the lead for good on Ryan McGuire’s goal. The Brothers’ defense, anchored by Vinal (16 saves), preserved that margin before Zach Taylor’s breakaway, short-handed goal in the final minute sealed the victory.
