Neither the West Genesee nor Syracuse ice hockey teams will have to travel anywhere for the bulk of the Section III Division I playoffs – unless they reach the Feb. 28 championship game at Utica Memorial Auditorium.
As the regular-season champions in their respective divisions, the Wildcats and Cougars both had home-ice advantage through the first two rounds, and hoped that would translate into a smooth ride until they possibly faced each other with the title at stake.
Going first, Syracuse, the runaway winner in the National Conference, hosted Liverpool last Thursday night at Meachem Rink in the Division I quarterfinals, and with an all-out attack and plenty of contributions from plenty of players, the Cougars put away the Warriors 5-1.
Syracuse had not played for more than a week since its Feb. 9 win over Fayetteville-Manlius. Liverpool, who lost 6-3 at Meachem on Jan. 28, had gone in hoping that long break had caused some rust, but quickly found out otherwise as the Cougars poured through the Warriors’ defenses right from the opening faceoff.
It took just four minutes for Syracuse to get on the board with Andrew Hodgens’ goal, which only figured since Hodgens constantly won face-offs throughout the night, giving his team more possession time and more shots.
Matt Eccles then made it 2-0 with a breakaway goal late in the first period, and the margin grew to 3-0 before Liverpool got its lone tally from Nate Dombroski at the midway point of the second period.
Jake Polacek allowed nothing more, though, finishing the game with 16 saves, and when Colby Skrupa beat Steven Kozikoski for a goal with 10 seconds left in the second period, Syracuse regained the momentum for good.
Bryan O’Mara and Casey Rogers gave the Cougars five different goal-scorers, with Matt Eccles earning two assists as O’Mara, Philip Zollo, Ryan Eccles, Matt Frye and Matt Goddard got one assist apiece. Only Kozikoski’s 52 saves kept it from a bigger margin.
This sets up Syracuse for Tuesday night’s Division I semifinal against defending champion Baldwinsville, who started out the playoffs with a 5-0 shutout over Fayetteville-Manlius. The Bees beat the Cougars in last year’s sectional final, but now they would meet one round earlier to see who would go back to Utica.
Meanwhile, West Genesee had to wait out a one-game playoff for fourth place in the National Conference held two nights before its playoff opener. Though Watertown IHC beat Rome Free Academy twice in the regular season, the Black Knights took that playoff game 2-1.
Thus, it was RFA making the trip to Shove Park Friday night for the Division I quarterfinal, and it was over quite early as the state no. 2-ranked Wildcats got a natural hat trick from Ryan McDonald – and that was just the starting point in an 8-0 shutout over the Black Knights.
McDonald put together his gem in less than 10 minutes. He first converted at the 3:12 mark of the opening period, and less than three minutes later again found the net to make it 2-0. When McDonald netted a third goal with five minutes left in the period, the hat trick was in the books.
Not stopping there, WG extended its lead to 5-0 by the first intermission, and then scored three more times over the next two periods. Ryan McDonald added a fourth goal as Matt McDonald, Pat McDonald, Marshall Winn and Jack Birchler added one goal apiece.
Dan Colabufo had a career-best four assists and Jay Considine contributed three assists as Conor Bartlett had two assists. Steve Anderson, Jeff Kopek and Ryan Smith joined Winn and Matt McDonald earning single assists.
On Wednesday night at Shove Park, the Wildcats will host Cicero-North Syracuse in the Division I semifinals. The Northstars routed Fulton 6-2 in its playoff opener, but must try and make up a lot of ground following a 5-0 defeat to WG when it last visited Camillus on Jan. 12.
