Faced with serious adversity in the form of a pair of early-season defeats, the Skaneateles boys ice hockey team had responded with three wins in a row.
Even more important was what the Lakers did last Friday at Allyn Arena against CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt in the first encounter between the two sides since last February’s Section III Division II final which Skaneateles won at the Syracuse War Memorial.
Twice, Skaneateles trailed, and twice it came back, saving its best work for the third period, where it closed with a furious scoring surge and went on to beat the Brothers 7-4.
Off for more than a week since beating Cazenovia Dec. 7, the Lakers found that it would take a while to get its top form back, and CBA/J-D, only 1-3 entering the game, pounced during 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 as single assists went to Tom Coyne, Jacob French, Charlie Russell and Patrick Moore. Adam Casper finished with 34 saves in the net.
And this led Skaneateles to a crucial early-season stretch as two state-ranked teams, New Hartford and Cortland-Homer, would visit Allyn Arena before an 11-day holiday break.
