Having surrendered 10 goals to Syracuse in its previous outing on Dec. 16, the Fayetteville-Manlius ice hockey team felt an urgency to address its defensive struggles.
Whatever was worked on seemed to prove effective, for when the Hornets welcomed Mohawk Valley to Cicero Twin Rinks last Wednesday night, it gave up an early goal, and nothing more to earn a 3-1 victory over the Raiders.
Henry Froass landed that first-period goal for Mohawk Valley. Despite that, F-M took a 2-1 lead, and after a scoreless second period, the Hornets maintained its defensive poise and kept the Raiders from catching up while tacking on an insurance goal.
Brandon Heyman was superb in the net, stopping 20 of 21 shots he faced. F-M’s attack centered around Will Healy and Ben Hammond, who each got one goal and assisted on the other two scoring plays as Mike Hockenberger earned the other goal.
While that was going on, CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt, who sat at no. 13 in the state Division II rankings, met no. 14-ranked New Hartford, and it ended up unsettled, the Brothers and Spartans playing to a 3-3 tie.
In an otherwise quiet first period, Ben McCreary found the net to put CBA/J-D in front, 1-0. Then New Hartford broke through in the second period, scoring twice to grab a 2-1 lead before McCreary returned to stun the Spartans with a short-handed goal.
New Hartford went back in front, though, taking a 3-2 edge to the final period, where Bailey Doust pushed the puck past Spartans goalie Nick Kolis to tie it again. And there it would stay, through the rest of regulation plus overtime.
Despite his mid-game struggles, Brothers goaltender Peyton Bowler stopped 36 of the 39 shots he faced. Kolis earned 25 saves. Lynch Raby had two assists and Doug DeMarche added an assist as New Hartford’s Frank Mondi scored twice and assisted on the other goal, by Tyler Penree, who assisted on both of Mondi’s tallies.
