Regardless of the outcome of Tuesday night’s game, the West Genesee ice hockey team could not get full atonement for what happened the last time Baldwinsville came to Shove Park.
On that memorable February evening, the undefeated, state no. 1-ranked Wildcats saw its ambitions thwarted in the most painful way possible, dropping a four-overtime, multiple-round shootout to the Bees in the Section III Division I semifinals.
The stakes were not the same for this encounter between WG and B’ville, but by prevailing 5-1, the Wildcats at least offered itself a happier outcome in this latest chapter of an intense hockey rivalry.
B’ville only carried a 9-8 record into the game, having just snapped a five-game losing streak with a Jan. 26 win at Whitesboro. Meanwhile, the Wildcats, who started 0-3 this winter, had gone 12-2 since that point.
As always in a B’ville-WG game, it was physical from the outset, the hits as plentiful as the scoring chances. The Wildcats got the only goal of the first period when Dan Holzhauer scored off a feed from Chris Kliberg.
WG doubled that margin to 2-0 early in the second period, only to have a pair of penalties give B’ville a two-man advantage, which it converted as Parker Schroeder got the goal, assisted by Jamey Natoli and Ryan Muscatello.
That was as close as it would get, though. The Wildcats built the margin back to 3-1 by the end of the period and struck twice more in the third period, overcoming 27 total saves from Tommy Blais and Brad O’Neil.
Five different WG players got those five goals – one each by Holzhauer, Joe Comins, Joe McLaughlin, Billy Fisher and James Schneid.
Andrew Schneid got two assists as Comins, McLaughlin, Kliberg, Ryan Washo, Jake Kopek and Anthony Felix had one assist apiece. Wildcats goalie Chris Wells stopped 21 of B’ville’s 22 shots.
At 14-5 overall, WG finishes its regular season next Tuesday when Fulton visited Shove Park amid Senior Night festivities.
Meanwhile, weather again halted the state Division I no. 3-ranked Syracuse Cougars’ plans as it had to twice postpone a trip to Ithaca, this on the heels of a lost Jan. 18 game against Mamaroneck.
So when the Cougars faced state Division II no. 2-ranked Cortland-Homer on Saturday night at the McDonald Sports Complex, it was only playing its second game in 16 days.
Whether it was rust, or just a tremendous effort from the opponent, Syracuse suffered its first defeat of the season as the Golden Eagles were superb in all phases of the game, topping the Cougars 7-3.
Cortland-Homer’s front line gave Syracuse trouble all night. Adam Jubran led them with a three-goal hat trick, while Jed Brazo scored twice. Trevor Jubran earned three assists and Nick Gravel had two assists as goalie Brandon Ludwig recorded 28 saves.
If nothing else, the defeat gave the Cougars a need jolt before it played three times in four days at Meachem Rink, hosting Cicero-North Syracuse, Baldwinsville and Watertown IHC to close the regular season.
