Having lost back-to-back games, and on the brink of further trouble, the Baldwinsville ice hockey team found the resolve and heart to gain crucial victories before hitting the regular-season homestretch.
When the Bees traveled to Cicero Twin Rinks to face Fayetteville-Manlius last Monday night, it was reeling from defeats to Rochester McQuaid and Fairport, and nearly faced more trouble before a late surge produced a much-needed 2-1 win over the Hornets.
All through the first two periods, the Hornets turned back B’ville, thwarting a series of good scoring chances as F-M goaltender Andrew Heyman was on his way to 30 saves overall.
Though it had fewer chances, the Hornets did enough to worry B’ville’s defense. Yet goalie Josh Smith, with his 19 saves, would preserve his shutout most of the way.
It wasn’t until six minutes passed in the final period that B’ville broke the 0-0 deadlock, adding another goal less than five minutes later as Isaiah Pompo and Brendan Lynch converted, with Ryan Muscatello adding an assist.
With 1:13 left and the net empty, Will Duncanson, off feeds from Ben Hammond and Sam DiChristina, put one past Smith to cut the Bees’ lead to one, but the visitors held on in those last 73 seconds.
A day later, at Kennedy Arena, B’ville had to face Rome Free Academy, who after a 1-6-2 start was riding a six-game win streak and hadn’t lost yet in 2018 – until the Bees showed up and beat the Black Knights 4-2.
The first period made the difference, B’ville jumping out to a 2-0 advantage. From there, RFA settled down, but the Bees answered each challenge, its defense limiting the Black Knights to just 13 shots all night.
Tanner McCaffrey and Mark Monaco both had one goal and one assist, part of an attack where the other goals went to Pompo and Jamey Natoli. Four others – Cam Sweeney, Alex Schmidt, Jake Boshart and Brett Sabourin – were each credited with one assist.
Able to rest until Saturday, B’ville welcomed Division II contender Whitesboro to Lysander Arena on Saturday afternoon, and it put together one of its finest all-around efforts of the season in a 5-0 shutout of the Warriors.
Controlling matters from the outset, the Bees could only gain a 2-0 lead through the first two periods because Whitesboro goalie Jacob Domagal kept turning them back, eventually earning 42 saves.
Yet the pressure B’ville put on continued to take a toll and, in the third period, it got away by scoring three times as Brendan Lynch, with two goals and one assist, led the charge.
Natoli and Isaiah Pompo each had one goal and one assist, while Monaco had the other goal. Assists also went to Schmidt, Parker Schroeder, Mike Marsallo, Brandon Wilcox and Ryan Muscatello. Josh Smith stopped all 20 Whitesboro shots he faced.
This three-game win streak improved B’ville’s overall mark to 11-3-1, with games this week against its neighbors from Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool before a Feb.7 showdown with Syracuse at Meachem Rink.
