Six consecutive defeats to open the season, most of them of the lopsided variety, had sunk the Cazenovia ice hockey team to the bottom of the Division I standings.
Temporary relief arrived, though, in last Friday’s game against Fulton at the Morrisville State IcePlex, where the Lakers’ defense stood up well and timely goals produced a 3-1 win over the Red Raiders.
They were tied, 1-1, the Lakers getting on the board on Andrew Parkhurst’s goal to answer one from Fulton’s Derek Schumaker, when just past the midway point of the second period Cazenovia went out in front for good as J.D. Speer scored, assisted by Ethan Isbell.
It remained that way throughout most of a tense, scoreless third period. Fulton had many chances to pull back even, but goaltender Logan Palmer turned them all away, running his total to 31 saves, and with 14 seconds left Parkhurst, off a feed from Dan Scholl, put in a clinching empty-net goal. Dylan McCrink and Ethan Isbell also earned assists in this game.
Prior to this, he Lakers faced CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt last Tuesday night at Onondaga Nation Arena, and while absorbing a 10-2 defeat did have a pair of scoring plays.
Speer and Josh Whaley picked up those goals for Cazenovia, with assists credited to the quartet ofEt Scholl, John Dudrick, Justin Goodhueand James LeFever.
Between them, Lakers goalies Owen Bailey and Nick Korosec made 20 saves. CBA/J-D had eight different goal-scorers, with Kodi Dotterer and Simon Lessor each scoring twice as Dotterer got two assists and Lessor got one assist.
The win over Fulton followed, and in its lone game this week, the Lakers host Ontario Bay at the Iceplex, and then are off until its Dec. 28-29 appearance in Cortland-Homer’s holiday tour
