Three games in five days is what stood between the Skaneateles girls ice hockey team and the completion of an undefeated regular season.
In the first of those games, the Lakers visited Ithaca last Monday night, and breezed again, shutting out the Little Red 2-0 as it scored at least twice in each of the periods, spreading out its production throughout the contest while holding Ithaca to just eight shots.
All through it, Sophie Kush proved unstoppable, netting two goals and piling up four assists to finish with a career-best six points. Abby Kuhns also was generous, notching three assists to go with her lone goals.
Passes from Kush and Kuhns went to the duo of Sophia Burns and Campbell Torrey, each of whom would find the net twice. Skaneateles made Ithaca pay plenty for the attention to leading scorer Megan Teachout, though Teachout still earned an assist as Allison Weiss got two assists.
Two nights later, Skaneateles met Oswego at Allyn Arena, and required less than 14 minutes of ice time to put the Avalanche away with its most concentrated display of scoring power it has shown the entire winter, eventually prevailing by an 8-1 margin.
They were still 0-0 when, at the 6:29 mark of the first period, Sophie Burns broke through, scoring off feeds from Teachout and Johna Halko. After it killed off a penalty, the Lakers made it 2-0 when Kuhns converted, assists going to Burns and Katrina Harter.
What happened at the tail end of the opening period hastened the blowout. Off a net scramble, Teachout put in a rebounds with 2:03 left in the first and, before the Bucs could regroup, Kush dropped one in the net to make it 4-0.
A mere 12 seconds into the third period, the barrage continued, Kush pouncing on a rebound for her second goal. Then just 31 seconds passed before Kuhns, taking a pass from Kush, converted for a 6-0 lead.
At the 4:38 mark, Kush notched her fourth point when she assisted on Torrey’s goal, and Teachout returned 66 seconds later to skate around two Oswego defenders before putting home her second goals.
Those eight goals covered a span of 14 minutes, 15 seconds, and were part of an effort where Skaneateles, in the first two periods, took 32 shots to the Bucs’ four. Oswego would break up the shutout when Stephanie Kubis scored in the third period, assisted by Monica Cahill.
Now the Lakers sought to finish its perfect 15-0 run through the regular season Friday at Clinton, against the same side it beat 4-1 back on Jan. 4. This one was closer, and defenses ruled most of the way, but Skaneateles shut out the Warriors 2-0.
Even though it again controlled the flow of play, the Lakers mostly met frustration against Clinton goaltender Ryann Stripp, who had seen Skaneateles up close before and knew how to handle its shots. All told, Stripp made 37 saves.
Clinton couldn’t take advantage of this great effort, though, only making 14 shots, all of them stopped by Johna Halko. Single goals in the first and third periods would prove enough as Teachout and Kuhns scored them, with assists credited to Kush and Weiss.
