Just as it had a decade earlier, the Baldwinsville ice hockey team had a single opponent in the way of an historic first state Division I championship. Just like in 2005, that foe was Rochester McQuaid.
And just like that long-ago state final, the Knights dashed the Bees’ dreams, doing so this time by a 6-2 margin in Sunday’s state title game at Utica Memorial Auditorium, a game where, right from the opening whistle, McQuaid proved better than its B’ville counterparts.
“They (McQuaid are just at a different level than we are,” said B’ville head coach Mark Lloyd. “They were bigger, faster and stronger. It’s hard to compete with a team like that.”
Recent history didn’t offer the Bees much encouragement, given that McQuaid had handled them 8-2 on Jan. 17, B’ville’s last defeat before it made its run to the state finals. Nor did the fact that the Bees were missing one of its top scorers, Adam Tretowicz, from the lineup with a knee injury suffered while playing with his club team, the Syracuse Stars.
Just as important, though, was how hard B’ville had worked just to reach the state final, having gone to overtime to defeat Saratoga Springs 2-1 in the state semifinal the night before. Less than 24 hours, the Bees knew it needed a greater effort to turn around its rough recent history with McQuaid.
Perhaps sensing all this, the Knights flew out of the gate, putting a shot off the goal-post in the game’s opening moments before Michael Campbell scored on a shot from the left point just 29 seconds into the game.
It nearly got worse, with another Knights goal disallowed because Christian Leonardi had kicked the puck in the net, and a second shot off the post that made Lloyd use his lone time-out just 2:14 into the first period.
“The moment just got to us,” said Lloyd. “We were a bit worked up and nervous.”
Things didn’t get better right away. In fact, the game was nearly 13 minutes old before Matt Abbott got off his team’s first shot, and B’ville managed just two shots in the first period.
Only the superb work of Matt Sabourin kept the game 1-0 at intermission, as he stopped 11 of the 12 shots he faced, many of them close looks.
“Matt is the best goalie in New York State,” said Lloyd. “He’s carried us all year long.”
But even Sabourin could do little about McQuaid’s decisive second-period onslaught, which started at the 4:31 mark when Campbell fed Jack Dugan on a breakaway, and the McQuaid junior ripped a point-blank wrist shot home.
Far more damaging, though, was what McQuaid did after Craig McCabe was whistled for a boarding penalty, giving B’ville, trailing 2-0, a four-minute major opportunity to catch up – or so it appeared.
Not letting up in its aggression, the Knights got a short-handed goal at the 7:32 mark, thanks to Dugan, who broke in up the middle and scored off a feed from Isaac Swartzman. Two minutes later, when Sabourin tried to clear the puck out, it deflected off Christian Leonardi’s skate into his own net.
Joe Pasko’s goal with 1:31 left in the period made it 5-0, and the third period was spent by the Bees trying to keep McQuaid from pulling further away and, also, attempting to get on the board in its own right.
After a missed power-play chance, it was Joe Glamos, off a feed from Kyle Lindsay, delivering the goal with 7:47 left that prevented the shutout. But as fit the day, Campbell answered for McQuaid a minute later, and while Lindsay would add his own goal with 2:48 to play, it proved too late.
The loss could not erase, in any manner, all that B’ville had accomplished in 2014-15, from its first-ever Section III title to tough state playoff wins over Ithaca and Saratoga Springs that pushed the Bees to the brink of the summit.
It was symbolized by the loud cheers and salutes from a large contingent that came from the B’ville area to Utica for the title game. Even after it was over, those fans stayed for a while to cheer as the players, including the injured Tretowicz, received their second-place medals.
“We would have liked to finish it,” said Lloyd. “But we feel good about what we accomplished. We did so much.”
