True, the Skaneateles boys ice hockey team liked beating its main rival, Auburn, twice in the regular season as a response to last year’s painful defeat in the Section III Division II title game at Utica Memorial Auditorium, but real satisfaction would only arrive with a third win over the Maroons – which it got.
In front of an overflow crowd Wednesday night at Allyn Arena, the Lakers actually trailed for a brief moment in the third period, but quickly erased that deficit, took charge and beat Auburn 3-1 in the sectional semifinals.
Not only did the win secure a return trip to Utica for Saturday’s sectional title game against CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt (who beat Whitesboro 6-1 in the other semifinal), it also clinched a state tournament berth, since both finalists will advance, regardless of the result.
Perhaps that knowledge of the stakes fed into the intensity and emotion of this contest, already at a peak since Auburn wanted to avenge those 7-1 and 3-1 defeats to Skaneateles and win the battle that counted the most.
They played the first period on even terms, with nine shots apiece, but nothing that found the net. Lakers goaltender Garrett Morse was sharp, turning away anything that got close, while it was quickly apparent that Auburn’s netminder, C.J. Panek, was at the top of his game.
That was especially true in the second period. In one frantic sequence around the six-minute mark, Skaneateles had three-point blank looks, and Panek turned them away, eventually netting 13 saves in that period.
At the same time, though, the Maroons couldn’t take advantage of Panek’s brilliant efforts, missing on all 20 of its shots at Morse, so it went to the third period still 0-0.
Lakers head coach Mitch Major said that, during the intermission, he told his players that the second-period effort provided some momentum.
“The tide started to go our way,” said Major. “We figured that, sooner or later, it was going to break for us. Fortunately, it did.”
But that didn’t happen until Auburn broke the long deadlock with 11:42 left as Brian Franceschelli, on the power play, jammed the rebound past Morse after shots by Jake Morin and Dan Entenmann were stuffed.
Perhaps Auburn got too keyed up by that 1-0 lead, because it committed two penalties 25 seconds apart, giving Skaneateles a five-on-three situation. And the Lakers didn’t squander it, Reece Eddy putting in the rebound of Reggie Buell’s initital shot to tie it.
Newly energized, the Lakers kept putting on pressure, and exactly four minutes after Eddy tied it, with 6:10 to play in regulation, James Motyl, from the right wing, delivered a perfect pass to Cullen McGlynn, breaking to the net, and McGlynn beat Panek for the go-ahead goal.
Auburn got a handful of good opportunities to pull even again, but Morse, who finished with 24 saves, turned them back, and Eddy sealed it with an empty-net goal with 8.4 seconds left.
Now it’s a reunion with CBA/J-D three weeks after the Lakers rallied from a two-goal deficit in the final minutes of regulation and beat the Brothers 3-2 in overtime at Onondaga Nation Arena on Feb. 6. The two sides also tied 3-3 on Dec. 17 at Allyn Arena.
Even though both sides will still have a shot at the state championship, Major said it’s important for the Lakers to break a sectional title drought that dates back to 2008.
“Sectional championships do not come along every day,” he said. “When you get close to it, that’s a motivating factor.”
