Someone – either the Syracuse Cougars, or the Baldwinsville Bees – will emerge from Saturday’s showdown at Utica Memorial Auditorium with its first-ever Section III Division I ice hockey championship.
A day after the Bees brought West Genesee’s seven-year title reign to an end, the Cougars got a scare from Rome Free Academy in its Division I semifinal Wednesday night at Meachem Rink, but got the goals it needed down the stretch to beat the Black Knights 2-0.
It proved far more stressful than the first meeting between these sides Jan. 9, when Syracuse jumped out to a 4-0 lead on RFA and cruised to a 4-2 win.
During a scoreless first period, both sides missed chances to get out in front. Then, in the second period, the Cougars’ tendency to draw penalties nearly cost them as RFA got four different chances with the man advantage, including a five-on-three situation.
Somehow, Syracuse killed all of those penalties and kept it 0-0, whether it was Sam Walsh making one of his 22 saves or, in one instance, Collin Thompson laying out with his stick to keep a shot from going in the net.
Those missed Black Knights chances (it did not convert on any of its six power plays) appeared to take a toll, something that the Cougars sense as the third period got underway and, gradually, it began making its own sustained assault on the RFA net.
For a while, Black Knights goalie Devin Hart, who finished with 30 saves, turned many of those shots back, while others by Thompson and Sean Eccles clanged off the iron.
But with 5:22 left, Eccles launched a shot from the left point, and with RFA defenders going after him, the rebound fell right to Ryan Lehrer next to the net, and Lehrer put home the game’s first goal.
Now protecting that one-goal lead, Syracuse did so, and after Hart got pulled, the Black Knights’ last charge was turned back, and Thompson added an empty-net tally with six seconds left to clinch it.
The final pits Syracuse against B’ville, who blanked West Genesee 5-0 in an impressive semifinal effort at Lysander. The Cougars and Bees split their regular-season meetings, with B’ville prevailing 4-2 at Lysander on Dec. 6, and Syracuse winning 3-1 on Jan. 16 at Meachem.
