With little stress, the West Genesee and Syracuse ice hockey teams cleared the initial hurdles to a possible Section III Division I championship showdown next Saturday at the Onondaga County War Memorial.
In the case of the defending sectional champion Wildcats, its opening-round game against Fayetteville-Manlius at Shove Park Friday night turned into a showcase for its offense, which reached double digits for the fifth time this season in a 13-0 shutout of the Hornets.
When these teams met Jan. 16 at Cicero Twin Rinks, WG prevailed 7-0, and would get a head start on bettering that margin when F-M committed a pair of first-period penalties that each led to power-play goals.
But it got more lopsided in the second period as the Wildcats scored twice more with a man advantage, and then started to hit on even-strength goals so that, by the intermission, it was 8-0, and WG would convert five more times in the third period.
Fifteen different players earned at least one point, with Pat McDonald notching a three-goal hat trick and adding two assists, while Dan Colabufo scored twice and got four assists. Chris Peer and Andrew Schneid each had two goals and one assist.
Jay Considine and John Bergan both earned three assists, Considine joining Garrett Schnorr, Joe Comins and Chris Kleberg with single goals. Dan Holzhauer and Billy Fisher both got a pair of assists as single assists went to Marshall Winn, Jack Anderson, Jack Miller and Joe Artini.
Going first, Syracuse, who had moved up to no. 3 in the latest state Division I rankings, hosted Liverpool in its opening-round game Thursday and, sparked by Bryan O’Mara’s hat trick, rolled to a 7-2 victory over the Warriors.
The Cougars had beaten this same Liverpool team 9-0 just 10 days earlier at Lysander Arena. And while the playoff rematch was a bit closer, Syracuse was never in any serious danger, and O’Mara made sure of it.
Syracuse gave the Warriors an immediate psychological blow in the first period when, on a Liverpool power play, O’Mara broke free to the other end and put a high shot past Warriors goalie Sebastian Jesmore. At even strength, O’Mara struck again later in the period off a feed from Philip Zollo to make it 2-0.
Bobby Welch’s goal got Liverpool on the board early in the second period, but then O’Mara returned to earn his third goal, this time with Matt Eccles joining Zollo in earning assists.
Andrew Hodgens scored to make it 4-1 going to the third period, but any doubts about the outcome were erased when Matt Eccles struck for back-to-back goals, one of them assisted by his brother, Ryan. Even when Tyler Dorval scored for the Warriors with 2:39 left, Matt Frye answered less than a minute later.
Tommy Bianchi, Jeff Gentile and Pat Langlois earned assists on the Welch and Dorval goals. Matt Goddard was credited with two assists as Jesmore shared time in goal with Adam Bleiweiss, the pair combining for 34 saves. By contrast, Syracuse goalie Jake Polacek only had to make nine saves as the Cougars controlled the puck most of the way.
This sets up the sectional Division I semifinals, where Syracuse hosts Baldwinsville, the only team to beat the Cougars this season as the Bees blanked Cicero-North Syracuse 3-0 in its sectional opener at Lysander Arena.
Meanwhile, at Shove Park in the other sectional semifinal, West Genesee takes on Rome Free Academy, the Black Knights having survived a tough 5-4 battle with Fulton at Kennedy Arena to get this far.
