Far from the pushover that it was in the opening weeks of the season, the Cazenovia ice hockey team went to the Cortland-Homer Tournament last weekend sporting a modest two-game win streak.
And the Lakers nearly made it three in a row in the tournament’s opening round last Friday against Ballston Spa, but could not quite pull it off, taking a 3-2 defeat to the Scotties.
They were scoreless before an exchange of goals in the second period made it 1-1, Dominic Paglia scoring for Cazenovia. Then Ballston Spa scored twice in the third period, enough to withstand Paglia’s second goal of the game.
Forrest Ives, Tom Champion, J.D. Speer and Josh Whaley each picked up an assist on the two goals Paglia scored, and Logan Palmer had a sensational game in the net, stopping 41 of the 44 shots he faced.
So Cazenovia had to play in the consolation game Saturday against Ontario Bay after host Cortland-Homer routed them 13-2. This was the same Storm side the Lakers had blanked 8-0 less than two weeks earlier at the Morrisville State IcePlex.
The rematch followed the same pattern, Cazenovia handling Ontario Bay 8-1 this time around as it broke the game open in the second period, building on a 1-0 advantage by netting four unanswered goals.
Speer, with two goals and two assists, and Jacob Ives, with a goal and three assists, led the charge as Dan Scholl produced three assists.
Paglia and Andrew Parkhurst each finished with a goal and two assists, while Whaley, Gavin Winn and Kyle Bryun also netted goals. Dylan McCrink, James LeFever and Forrest Ives had one assist apiece/
Now the Lakers (3-7) could turn to the second half of the regular season, which after an eight-day layoff starts next Monday night against Cicero-North Syracuse at Cicero Twin Rinks before a Jan. 11 trip to Kennedy Arena to face Rome Free Academy.
