Having muddled to a 1-3 start, the CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt ice hockey team nearly found the perfect way to turn things around.
The Brothers went to Allyn Arena last Friday night, taking on defending Section III Division II champion Skaneateles, and led twice, including in the third period, before the Lakers rallied both times and handed CBA/J-D a 7-4 defeat.
This was the first encounter between these two sides since last February’s Section III Division II final which Skaneateles won at the Syracuse War Memorial.
Since then, the Lakers had seen its top scorers graduate, and it lost its first two games to Auburn and West Genesee, but then won three in a row prior to CBA/J-D’s arrival.
Not intimidated one bit by the Lakers, the Brothers controlled the first period. Goals by Josh Grund and Bailey Doust, combined with strong work in goal by Manuel Pineda, had the Lakers staring at a 2-0 deficit going into first intermission.
But Skaneateles turned it around in the second period, twice beating Pineda to pull even before Luke Lynn converted in the last minute to push the Lakers in front 3-2.
The twists and turns continued early in the third period as Doust converted to pull CBA/J-D even and then Grund netted his second goal, briefly giving the Brothers a 4-3 advantage.
Once more, Skaneateles would fight back, pulling even and then getting the lead for good with eight minutes left before Owen VanHoltz converted twice in the waning moments, including an empty-netter.
Lynn and Matt Leveroni both had two goals and one assist, with Jimmy Liberatore also finding the net. Ryan Gick had two assists. Adam Casper finished with 34 saves in the net as Pineda got 26 saves.
As that was going on, Fayetteville-Manlius took its 2-2-1 record to Kennedy Arena, where it played well in the beginning and late stages against Mohawk Valley, yet paid for a mid-game slump as it tied the Raiders 2-2.
Down 1-0 through one period, the Hornets saw Ben Hammond score once and assist on Jackson’s Denton goal in the second period as Sam Dichristina and Will Duncanson also earned assists.
Yet Mohawk Valley pulled back even, shutting out F-M in the third period and overtime, and threatening to win it, only to see Brandon Heyman pick up 38 saves as RFA goalie Michael Eastman had 28 saves.
F-M’s only game this week is against Watertown IHC on Tuesday as CBA/J-D hosts Cortland-Homer and then plays Friday night at Clinton.
