Regardless of whether a great season for the Skaneateles boys ice hockey team turns into one full of championship banners, it will always take the memory of the comeback it pulled off Friday night at Onondaga Nation Arena against CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt.
Needing a win to have any chance at the Division II American Conference regular-season championship, the Lakers trailed the Brothers by two goals deep into the third period, only to find the resolve to rally, tie the game and then win it, 3-2, on Matt Benson’s goal with 1:23 left in overtime.
The startling turnaround was a result of patience and perseverance on the part of Skaneateles, who entered the night 14-2-1 and ranked no. 4 in the state Division II poll, just two spots ahead of CBA/J-D.
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, featuring Bennett Morse in goal for Skaneateles (Kyle Oschner played between the pipes in the first meeting), looked like it would carry a worse fate for the Lakers.
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 Morse for the game’s first goal.
Despite plenty of chances, the Lakers could not answer, and things got worse when, with just 17.7 seconds left in that second period, Durkin sent a shot from the right point between Morse’s pads and into the net, doubling the Skaneateles deficit 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.
Perhaps what took place was foreseen by what had happened back on Tuesday night.
While CBA/J-D had to wait until the third period to push past last-place Cortland-Homer 4-2 in a classic trap game (after it beat Auburn and before it faced Skaneateles), the Lakers had none of that stress in a 5-0 home victory over Whitesboro.
During the season, the Warriors had, among other things, beaten New Hartford in mid-January, but Skaneateles never let Whitesboro get close to those notions, taking 31 shots in the first two periods and allowing just three.
Not surprisingly, of the Lakers goals were scored in the first two periods, with Eddy in the middle of the fray, finding the net twice and earning a pair of assists, too. Reggie Buell was helpful, recording three assists.
Patrick Major, with a goal and two assists, wasn’t far behind, while Kuhns had one goal and one assist. Benson earned the other goal as, between them, Oschner and Morse only had to make 11 saves for the shutout.
Even as Skaneateles celebrated, it knew that the American Conference title was not locked up.
It still has to host Auburn next Tuesday and Clinton next Friday and get two points from those games to lock up the top seed for the Section III playoffs that are two weeks away – and could see, one more time, the Lakers and CBA/J-D go at it in the title game Feb. 28 at Utica Memorial Auditorium.
