In just 45 minutes of game action, the Liverpool ice hockey team found out plenty about itself, both the good and bad parts.
During Tuesday night’s season opener at Auburn, the Warriors, led by Bobby Welch, displayed an ability to put up lots of goals in a short amount of time, but also showed that it could surrender that same kind of production and was glad to leave Casey Park with a 7-6 victory.
Welch, from the outset, proved a menace to the Maroons, scoring 6:32 into the first period, Sparked by that goal, the Warriors made it 2-0 less than four minutes later, and Welch returned to net his second goal late in the period.
Trailing 3-0, Auburn got on the board with Johnny Malandruccolo’s goal less than a minute before the first period ended, but with Welch returning to contribute to two more goals, Liverpool stretched out its lead to 5-1 at one point in the second period.
A brief Warriors drought followed, allowing Auburn’s Jake Morin to convert twice to cut that lead in half, and then convert his hat trick off a rebound with 5:07 left to make it 5-4.
Right after the goal, though, a scuffle broke out, and Liverpool went to the power play. With Welch on fire and moving his total to five goals, the Warriors converted on the power play and did so again just nine seconds later, extending the lead to 7-4.
Four minutes remained, though, and Malandruccolo immediately answered, shrinking Liverpool’s lead to 7-5. Battling all the way to the end, Auburn got within one on Nate Rindfleisch’s goal with 32 seconds to play, but the Warriors were able to run out the remaining clock.
Aside from Welch, Tyler Dorval and Carson Ferguson scored for the Warriors, with Nick Northrup and Connor Boland each getting two assists and John Coggiola notching a single assist. Adam Bleiweiss, in goal, recorded 23 saves.
Liverpool, who plays home games at Lysander Ice Arena, hosts Fulton next Tuesday before a trip to the Ontario Bay Tournament on Dec. 9-10. Cicero-North Syracuse debuts at home next Wednesday against Watertown IHC before road games Dec. 9 at Canton and Dec. 10 at Potsdam.
