Lysander — When the Baldwinsville ice hockey team skated off at the conclusion of the second period of Tuesday night’s showdown with West Genesee at Lysander Arena, it was starting at a second consecutive shutout defeat to the rival it dethroned as Section III Division I champions one year earlier on this same home ice.
Yet by the time the Bees shook hands with the Wildcats at game’s end and, as is custom, raised their sticks to salute the fans, it felt a whole lot better, B’ville having pulled out a 2-2 tie with a late-game comeback that was both stunning and unexpected.
Following its 3-0 loss to West Genesee at Shove Park on Dec. 17, the Bees had rattled off nine consecutive victories and risen to no. 7 in the state Division II rankings, only to see the streak end last Friday with a 3-2 loss to struggling Ithaca.
That single loss cost B’ville seven spots in the state rankings, so it stood at no. 14, well back of the no. 2-ranked Wildcats, who had already wrapped up the Division I American Conference regular-season title. But WG remembered what happened in February 2015 at Lysander and badly wanted a different result.
B’ville did play a solid first period, keeping the game 0-0 while taking six shots at Wildcats goalie Sammy Colabufo, all of them stopped. Meanwhile, the Wildcats had its share of looks, but Matt Sabourin recorded nine saves.
That set up a second period where B’ville barely had possession of the puck, finding itself fending off a continual flurry of WG attacks. All told, the Wildcats took 18 shots to the Bees’ one.
Despite this, the visitors only scored twice, both on power plays. At the 4:40 mark, just one second before Ben Dwyer’s interference penalty expired, Marshall Winn found the net, and five minutes later it was Matt McDonald’s turn, fitting a shot through a screen after passes from his two brothers, Ryan and Pat.
continued — If not for Sabourin’s spectacular work (he finished the night with 33 saves), the margin may have gone well beyond 2-0, but it did not, which gave B’ville a glimmer of optimism as the third period got underway.
Showing far more aggression, B’ville suddenly was back in it when Dwyer’s floating shot from the left circle eluded Colabufo 1:18 into the period.
That assertiveness backfired when the Bees twice drew penalties, but this time it was able to thwart WG’s power-play chances, keeping the game 2-1.
Then, with 2:19 left, B’ville drew a face-off in WG’s end and won it, the puck drifting back to Matt Metcalf, who off feeds from Charlie Bertrand and Andrew Starratino sent a shot that crashed into the top left corner of the net to tie it.
Newly energized, the Bees rode that momentum into overtime, where Garrett Gray got within an inch of winning it, only to see his hard shot clang off the crossbar and two other chances go just wide.
Having put so much into that game, B’ville could not afford to relax in Friday’s visit to Fulton, especially since the Red Raiders had upended state no. 4-ranked Syracuse 4-2 two nights earlier on that same home ice.
B’ville did get through it, edging Fulton 3-2 and improving its record to 12-3-1, but it had another road trip on Saturday, to Whitesboro, to make up a game postponed a week earlier – and it lost that game, falling to the Warriors by that same 3-2 margin.
Again, the third period proved important, but in reverse of what happened against West Genesee. Goals by Starrantino and David Eckmann in the second period had given B’ville a 2-0 lead, with Metcalf, Zack Perez and Carson Hayes earning assists.
Then Whitesboro stunned the Bees in the third period, tying it and then going in front with goals from Sean Gaffney, Luke Hyer and Andrew Maycock to overcome the 15 saves put up by Alex Rose. B’ville could not answer against the Warriors, who saw goalie Jacob Domagal stop 25 of the 27 shots he faced.
And it will be a busy final week of the regular season for the Bees, who still had to host Cicero-North Syracuse Monday and Rome Free Academy on Friday, with a trip to Kennedy Arena to face Mohawk Valley in between. At least second place in the Division I American Conference, and a first-round playoff home game, was sewn up.
