Staring at a two-goal deficit midway through the third period and the prospect of having its season end at the expense of its closest rival, the Cicero-North Syracuse ice hockey team picked a good time to roar to life.
A four-goal eruption in the closing minutes of Tuesday’s Section III Division I opening-round game at Lysander Ice Arena would help the Northstars stun Liverpool 4-2 and advance to the quarterfinal round.
Ever since these teams first met Dec. 20 in the Optimist Tournament and C-NS prevailed 5-3, things had not gone well for the Northstars, who won just four times the rest of the regular season.
And that included a Feb. 14 rematch with Liverpool at the Twin Rinks that went 7-3 in the Warriors’ favor, C-NS unable to stop Connor Boland, who piled up four goals and two assists.
Just four days later, Liverpool, as the no. 8 playoff seed, would now get to play at Lysander against C-NS, and the two sides battled through a scoreless first period.
Then the Warriors inched in front 1-0 when Matt Gagnon scored 9:48 into the second period, and then doubled that margin early in the third, again with Gagnon finding the net.
To that point, James Welch was turning back everything C-NS threw at him, eventually earning 37 saves, but once Matt Cramer found the net to cut Liverpool’s lead to 2-1, the whole game changed.
Cramer would pass it to Braylen Tuff, who netted the tying goal. Then an infraction on a breakaway with less than 90 seconds left in regulation gave the Northstars a penalty shot that Cramer converted for the go-ahead goal.
Tyler Murray added an empty-net tally in the closing seconds and C-NS had won it, having seen Kaii VanLuven play quite well in the net, finishing with 27 saves.
Two nights later, C-NS would go to Meachem Rink to battle top seed and defending state champion Syracuse in the sectional quarterfinals, knowing that it had to do something special to turn around a 9-1 defeat to this same team at the Twin Rinks nine days earlier.
And it was much closer – but the Cougars still ended the Northstars’ season, prevailing 5-1 as C-NS’s lone goal came from Tyler Murray in the second period.
By then, Syracuse was out in front, and up 3-1 going to the third, it doubled that margin as Kaleb Benedict, named as the sectional Division I Player of the Year earlier in the week, earned a three-goal hat trick.
Stephan Matro had a goal and two assists, with Cam Walsh getting the other goal as VanLuven made 34 saves, with Cougars counterpart Alex Moreno stopping 24 of C-NS’s 25 shots.
When the sectional All-Star honors were released, Boland was a first-team selection, as was Wisely. Cramer and teammate Holden Sarosy, along with the Liverpool quintet of Gagnon, Welch, Xavier Springer, Marco Palumbo and Joey Terranova, earned Honorable Mention status.
