With the calendar about to turn to the decisive month of February, the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool ice hockey teams both knew that it needed to turn things around fast.

And at least in the Northstars’ case, it would find some light in last Friday’s game against Ontario Bay at the Twin Rinks, producing a 5-3 victory over the Storm.

Tied 1-1 after one period, C-NS would double Ontario Bay’s production in each of the last two periods as Matt Cramer was the only Northstars player to score twice.

Devin Freeman and Kyle Debejian each had one goal and one assist, while Holden Sarosy also got a goal. Aidan Long, Tucker Knapp, Sam Richardson, Braylen Tuff, Carter Wisely and Ryan Sisco also picked up assists.

Both sides played last Tuesday on the road – and both lost, C-NS handled 7-0 by Baldwinsville and Liverpool taking a 5-1 defeat to CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt.

Over the course of the first two periods against B’ville, C-NS did keep things within sight, only trailing 3-0, but it got away as the Bees netted four goals in the final period.

Jordan Miller worked in net for the Northstars and gained 31 saves. The Bees had Matt Speelman and Cooper Foote each score twice, with Luke Hoskin getting a goal and three assists.

Out at Onondaga Nation Arena, Liverpool was kept off the board until the third period, when Connor Boland’s goal broke up CBA/J-D’s shutout attempt.

James Welch had 28 saves, but the Brothers’ Simon Lessor solved him three times for a hat trick as Cody Dotterer got three asssits. Of the Warriors’ 26 shots, 25 were stopped by Joe Salvador.

It didn’t get better for Liverpool in last Friday’s 6-2 defeat to Ithaca, a game close for a while before the Little Red issued three unanswered goals in the third period.

Boland scored once in each of the first two periods, with assists each time going to Matt Gagnon. The only reason why Ithaca didn’t get more was because Welch was amassing 53 saves.