A 14-day break in the middle of its schedule did not derail the Skaneateles girls ice hockey team much – but a nemesis from earlier in the season would strike again.
Despite the back-to-back defeats in the Dec. 18-19 Albany Academy Tournament, the Lakers remained unbeaten against local foes, a trend that continued right after that lost weekend in Albany when it shut out newcomer Clinton 5-0 on Dec. 22 before the holidays.
Exactly two weeks later, Skaneateles was back at Schneider Rink, taking on Ithaca, where patience and persistence was rewarded with the Lakers pulling away late to defeat the Little Red 4-1.
They had first played Dec. 1, a 5-0 Skaneateles win at Ithaca, but it would not be a shutout here, thanks to a Little Red goal early in the second period that pulled the visitors even, 1-1.
This followed an opening period where the Lakers dominated the flow of play, taking nine shots to Ithaca’s two, yet did not get on the board until Megan Teachout converted on a back-hander with just 15.2 seconds left in the frame.
Instead of letting the frustration of missed opportunities bother them, Skaneateles took over, pulling back in front for good, 2-1, on Teachout’s second goal less than two minutes after the Little Red tied it.
Once holding that 2-1 lead, the Lakers kept probing while its defense didn’t let Ithaca do much, holding them to just six shots overall. The cushion finally arrived when Caroline McGuigan, off a feed from Sophie Kush, found the net with 3:52 left, and a minute later Abby Kuhns found the net.
All told, Kush had three assists, with Mallory Kovacs, Grace Schnorr and Allison Weiss getting credit with one assist apiece. Skaneateles won despite a great effort in goal by the Little Red’s Devin Baylor, who had 29 saves.
Yet another road trip would follow on the weekend, with Skaneateles going to the northern part of the state in search of some valuable victories.
The first game didn’t prove a problem as the Lakers, against Salmon River, shut out the Shamrocks 5-0. In arguably its best first-period effort of the season, Skaneateles jumped out to a 3-0 lead, and didn’t let Salmon River generate many opportunities, holding them to just nine shots .
Kush, in particular, proved tough to stop, netting three goals for a hat trick. Often, her passes came from Schnorr, who had three assists to go with her single goal as Teachout added two assists. Weiss had one goal and one assist as Kovacs and Lauren Jones also made it to the assist column.
This led to Saturday’s showdown with Massena, who beat Skaneateles 2-1 on Dec. 18. Three weeks later, Skaneateles looked to get even, and nearly did so with a spectacular late-game comeback, only to get turned back at the wire in a 5-4 defeat to the Red Raiders.
Massena jumped out of the gate, catching the Lakers’ defense in bad spots that led to multiple first-period breakaways. Twice, K.C. Heme, the Red Raiders’ leading goal-scorer, converted, and Amber Thomas also found the net, creating a 3-0 Skaneateles deficit.
When Massena’s Abby Paquin scored five minutes into the second period, the Lakers trailed, 4-0, but the pressure it put on the Red Raiders’ net started to pay off when McGuigan, fed by Weiss, scored 20 seconds after Paquin’s tally.
Teachout converted five minutes later, with Kush and Schnorr earning the assists, so Skaneateles had cut the deficit in half, to 4-2, entering the third period, where it made a crucial penalty kill and then moved within a goal when Ioanna Christou found the net, assisted by Kuhns and Weiss.
It was Kush netting the tying goal midway through the final period, but that 4-4 deadlock did not last long. Another Skaneateles penalty led to Thomas putting home a power-play goal, and the Lakers could not answer it in the waning minutes, despite accumulating 44 shots to Massena’s 20.
The loss dropped Skaneateles to 9-3, with two of the losses coming to Massena and a tough home game against Alexandria Bay on deck at Schneider Rink on Wednesday night.
