A season ago, the West Genesee ice hockey team could only watch as Syracuse succeeded them as Section III Division I champions.

Now, the Wildcats have a chance to claim the title back from the Cougars on the big stage at the War Memorial Monday night, this following victories by both of them in Wednesday night’s sectional semifinals.

At Shove Park, WG withstood a strong challenge from Fayetteville-Manlius to prevail 4-2, while at Meachem Rink Syracuse jumped all over visiting Baldwinsville and claimed a 5-0 shutout.

To a large degree, these games were informed by what happened in 2018. WG’s four-overtime, shoot-out defeat to B’ville in this same semifinal round both motivated the Wildcats and gave the Cougars plenty of reason to pay attention to its own game against the Bees.

Though WG had shut out F-M 4-0 early in December, the Hornets came into this game having won 14 of 15, and didn’t get rattled by the Wildcats holding them without a shot for the first nine minutes and taking a 1-0 lead on BIlly Fisher’s rebound goal.

Instead, the Hornets got on the board at the 9:09 mark of the first period when Will Duncanson scored short-handed, and Ben Hammond converted three minutes later to push F-M in front 2-1.

That lead lasted all of 90 seconds, Jack Miller’s power-play tally pulling WG back even. It stayed 2-2 through most of the second period as the Hornets increased its pressure, but was unable to get the lead.

WG finally went in front for good with a long possession in F-M’s end late in the period, capped when Jake Farrell’s hard shot from the left circle fit inside the left post past Hornets goalie Brandon Heyman.

Undeterred, F-M had at least two good chances during the third period to pull back even, only to see shots go wide as the Wildcats’ defense put its bodies in front of several other chances.

Then, with 2:55 left, Dan Holzhauer, carrying the puck up the middle with a Hornets defender staying with him step for step, slid a low, one-handed shot under Heyman’s pads and into the net for the clinching goal.

Now the Wildcats could exhale – and get ready to try and avenge the 6-3 defeat it took to Syracuse at Meachem Rink  on Jan. 11.

Doing so won’t prove easy, since the Cougars have shown no letup since it beat WG, winning nine of 10, two of them over Baldwinsville, who would again get shut out in the sectional semifinal after getting blanked 4-0 at Meachem just 12 days earlier.

in a first-period blitz, Syracuse found the net three times, but even that margin wasn’t enough as the Cougars tacked on two more goals in the second period, eventually outshooting the Bees by a more than 2-1 margin.

As was the case most of the season, Syracuse’s attack was well-balanced. Only Kaleb Benedict scored twice, with Skariwate Papineau getting two assists to go with his lone goal.

Hugh White and Steve Matro had the other goals, with Nate Frye, Kyle Lamson and Cam Walsh each getting one assist. Alex Moreno stopped all 21 shots he faced for the Cougars’ eighth shutout of the season.