Skaneateles — Reece Eddy got hurt. Then he provided a great deal more hurt to the opposition.
Eddy’s goal late in the third period, mere minutes after leaving the ice with an injury, combined with a hat trick from linemate Reggie Buell, helped push the Skaneateles ice hockey team past Auburn 6-3 in Wednesday night’s Section III Division II semifinal at a jam-packed Allyn Arena.
A tense, back-and-forth game would turn in the Lakers’ favor early in the third period, and Eddy was right in the middle of it.
With the score tied 3-3 and 10:30 left in regulation, Eddy, part of the Lakers’ top line with Buell and Raymond Falso, was hit along the boards in his own end by Auburn’s John Malandruccolo, who had scored two goals to help the Maroons keep pace with the Lakers through the first two periods.
Eddy, though able to skate after the hard hit, was helped off the ice. More importantly, Malandruccolo was given a four-minute major penalty for boarding.
Though the Lakers’ power play has struggled at times this year, it already had converted once in this game, and would do so again with 9:26 left when Buell, standing next to the net, took Jacob Patalino’s pass from the left circle and put home the go-ahead goal, his third of the night.
Auburn killed off the rest of the penalty, and even got its own power play when Falso was called for cross-checking with 4:13 left. But after an inconsistent evening, the Lakers’ defense kept the Maroons from converting, clearing the puck out four times.
By this point, Eddy had returned to the ice, and with 2:17 to play, he found himself open at the right circle off a feed from Falso.
Facing Eddy, Auburn goaltender Jack Farrington had cut off the angle, but Eddy still whipped a shot past him, extending the Lakers’ margin to two. Falso, who had four assists despite battling illness, would tack on an empty-net goal a minute later.
continued — Skaneateles had started its sectional run Feb. 19 by shutting out Whitesboro 5-0, but Auburn, who had split two January meetings with its neighbors to the east (each side winning on home ice), would prove a lot tougher.
Just like when they met in the sectional semifinals a year ago, fans from both Skaneateles and Auburn packed into the Allyn Arena stands more than a half-hour before face-off, filled the extra bleachers set up at the top of the stands and stood two-deep along the boards, a reminder of the raucous battles the two schools had on the ice in decades past at rinks old and new in both communities.
It didn’t take long for the Maroons’ fans to let out a roar – 25 seconds, to be precise. Malandruccolo got loose on a breakaway and, taking a pass from Kaiden Tubbert, beat Bennett Morse to give Auburn a quick 1-0 lead.
Gradually, the Lakers assumed control of the game’s flow, tying it on Buell’s goal midway through the first period. Two minutes later, though, Tubbert got open ice and converted on a breakway of his own, mere seconds after a Laker shot stopped on the goal line, but didn’t cross it.
Trailing 2-1 as the first period wound down, Skaneateles picked up its pressure, and it led to Eddy converting on a rebound with just 5.9 seconds on the clock to pull the Lakers even again.
Out-shot 12-4 in the first period, Auburn was much more aggressive in the second period. Even after Buell’s power-play goal gave the Lakers its first lead, 3-2, the Maroons kept getting open-ice chances, and Malandruccolo put home his own rebound just 1:16 later.
For all the good he did, though, Malandruccolo’s untimely hit on Eddy would turn the momentum permanently in the Lakers’ favor – and Eddy returned, anyway, to help put Auburn away.
Now the state no. 1-ranked Lakers get a chance to earn the sectional title this Sunday at noon at Utica Memorial Auditorium, where it will face New Hartford, who hasn’t allowed a goal in two post-season games, blanking Cortland-Homer 2-0 in the quarterfinals and Cazenovia 4-0 in the semifinals.
