Even before it took to the ice in the last week of the regular season, the Cazenovia ice hockey team knew its fate.
A last-second, 4-3 defeat to New Hartford on Jan. 30 at Morrisville State IcePlex meant that the Lakers were locked into third place in the Division II National Conference standings.
As such, Cazenovia knew that it was going to face defending Section III champion CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt in the opening round of the sectional playoffs late next week at Onondaga Nation Arena in Nedrow.
Still, Cazenovia had important games to finish up, ones that would determine just what kind of momentum it could take into the post-season – and as it turned out, that was plenty of momentum indeed, especially in the wake of last Wednesday night’s 5-1 romp over Auburn at the Morrisville State IcePlex.
Auburn had locked up a playoff home game, but could still win the regular-season league title if it beat Cazenovia and New Hartford lost to Clinton later in the week.
Aside from those stakes, though, Auburn remembered how Cazenovia had made a stunning late-game comeback to knock off the Maroons 5-4 at Casey Park on Dec. 18, and were thirsting for some payback – or so it seemed, anyway.
Instead of a thriller, what Cazenovia provided was one of its its best all-around performances of the season, Adam Race got the Lakers on the board in the first period, but a power-play goal allowed Auburn to get even, 1-1.
That didn’t last long, though. Colin McGaugh ripped a hard shot into the net to give Cazenovia the lead for good, and R.J. Smith made it 3-1 early in the second period. But the biggest blow came when McGaugh, fed by Jake Lewis and Jake Stowell, put in a goal with 4.4 seconds left in the second period.
Instead of a reasonable margin, the Maroons stared at a three-goal deficit and, unlike Cazenovia in the first meeting, could not make a late comeback. Dustin Hammond found the net with 2:36 left in the third period to close it out, the Lakers strong on defense throughout the night after Auburn’s early tally.
What made this effort more remarkable was that, a night earlier, the Lakers visited Clinton and saw the game spill into overtime before Cazenovia scored with less than two minutes left to top the Warriors 3-2.
These two wins in as many nights gave the Lakers plenty of confidence as it has more than a week to get ready for its trip to Nedrow to meet CBA/J-D for a game next Friday night that will face off at 7 p.m., with the winner to face New Hartford or Cortland-Homer in the sectional semifinals.
Cazenovia and CBA/J-D met once this season, on Jan. 16 at the IcePlex. In that game, the Lakers trailed, 3-1, in the third period, but rallied to tie it and then won, 4-3, in overtime, with goals from Lewis, McGaugh, Stowell and Cole Willard.
