CENTRAL NEW YORK – A modest 2-2 start to its season did not inspire great confidence in the Cicero-North Syracuse ice hockey team, especially when its next test on Dec. 19 was a trip to Shove Park.
Reigning sectional Division I champion West Genesee hosted the Northstars and controlled most of the game, only to run into a hot goaltender in Trevor Smith who did enough to help secure a 3-3 tie.
Even with most of the game in the Northstars’ end the Wildcats could not put the game away, Smith thwarting the attack and piling up 40 overall saves, more than twice the total of 19 from Luke Beck.
Up 1-0 through one period WG saw C-NS pull even, 2-2, by the time they reached the third period and another tense exchange of goals.
Jase Knopp had a part in every C-NS scoring play, finding the net once and assisting on goals by Andrew Gabor and Emmit Porter. Dylan Ling and Chase Mearon also had assists.
Luke Alfieri, Jonah Vormwold and Carson Berg got the Wildcats’ goals, with Christian Ball, Cole Hunter and Jackson Pensabene joining Alfiri in the assist column.
So began a stretch of three games in 48 hours, but C-NS did not have any kind of letdown after getting so close to knocking off the Wildcats even as it went on the road for the next two games.
A wild Dec. 20 game with Section II’s Niskayuna resulted in a 7-6 victory, the two sides mostly trading goals and the difference, as it turned out, was the fact that the Northstars led 3-2 after one period.
Porter had a part in every single scoring play, not only netting four goals but assisting on the other three, two of them by Gabor, who managed to assists on all four of Porter’s tallies. Nate Bustin earned the other goals, while Knopp, Nate Kirkby and Austin Benkoski also had assists.
Far easier was the 7-2 victory over Troy LaSalle a day later where C-NS raced out to a 6-2 advantage through two periods and spread out its attack more even as Porter got two goals and two assists.
Gabor and Bustin both had a goal and two assists. Mearon and Cam Walker chimed in each with one goal and one assist, with Knopp, Benkoski and Rob Warner earning one assist apiece.
