Jay Considine had watched his West Genesee ice hockey teammate, Dan Colabufo, get stymied three times by Syracuse goaltender Jake Polacek on a power play in overtime of Saturday’s Section III Division I final at the Syracuse War Memorial.
Now, as Considine took a pass from Colabufo and bore down on Polacek from the left side three minutes into the extra period, he shot low, and the puck made it through Polacek’s pads into the net.
Seconds later, Considine was buried beneath his celebrating teammates as the Wildcats against were sectional champions in a 2-1 decision over the state no. 3-ranked Cougars.
“We knew that one of those shots were going to find to go into the net,” said Considine.
Though this is the latest in a long string of WG sectional titles (nine in the last 10 years), this one was special, said Wildcats head coach Frank Colabufo, because of the quality of the opposition.
“Syracuse is the best team we’ve played all year,” he said.
After a seven-year absence, the sectional final returned to the Syracuse Crunch’s home ice at the War Memorial and brought a big, vocal crowd from both the WG and Syracuse sides.
Not only was the setting different, so were the program’s recent histories. WG had ruled the sectional ranks for a decade, while Syracuse was after its first title since combining with the Solvay program, whose last sectional crown came in 2004.
More recent history favored the Cougars, in the form of its 3-2 win at Shove Park Jan. 13. The Wildcats figured that turning the previous result in its favor simply involved converting the opportunities it missed against the Cougars in Camillus.
With the edge of experience in this big-game setting, the Wildcats weathered intense attacks and physical play from Syracuse in the opening minutes. Then, at the 7:14 mark of the first period, John Bergan took a pass from Marshall Winn and, from the left circle, fired a shot that Ryan Washo deflected into the net.
WG carried that 1-0 edge into the second period, but knew that it had a similar one-goal edge at Shove Park that it could not sustain. Syracuse knew this, too, and weathered an all-out Wildcats attack early in the period before turning the flow of play in its favor.
Neither side got a power play until Syracuse did so near the midway point of the second, and moments later, at the 6:55 mark, Philip Zollo took the puck right of the net and, at the doorstep, ripped a wrist shot past Sammy Colabufo.
Having tied it, the Cougars kept pouring on pressure, taking 14 shots in that period to WG’s six, yet it remained 1-1, a sectional title and a year’s worth of work boiling down to 15 minutes – or, as it turned out, more.
Syracuse killed off the Wildcats’ first power play early in the third period and then resumed its push. WG resisted, but had to withstand another Cougars man-up advantage in the last two minutes of regulation. Right before that, Sammy Colabufo gloved Bryan O’Mara’s point-blank attempt to keep it even, the best of his 30 saves.
“Sammy made some rock-solid stops today,” said Frank Colabufo.
As the game went into OT, all of those times the Wildcats played in big games turned into an even greater advantage.
“When we get into these games, we stick to a simple formula,” said Frank Colabufo. “We weren’t unnerved by the moment.”
Instead, WG drew the man advantage it needed and, thanks to Considine, earned yet another trip to the state tournament, where it will host Section VI champion Williamsville North next Saturday at 6:30 at Shove Park. The winner goes to Buffalo’s HarborCenter for the March 11-12 state ‘Frozen Four’.
