Though 12 months have passed, and many players had moved on or joined the fray, the Section III ice hockey Division I semifinal games next Wednesday night exactly resembles those of 2019.
Again, Syracuse welcomes Baldwinsville to Meachem Rink. Once more, West Genesee awaits a challenge from Fayetteville-Manlius at Shove Park, and the prize of both games is a date at the War Memorial March 2 with the sectional title at stake.
Holding the top two seeds in the sectional bracket, Syracuse and WG would play on consecutive nights in the quarterfinal round, and both would prevail by comfortable margins.
Going first last Thursday, the Cougars met no. 9 seed Cicero-North Syracuse after the Northstars had used four third-period goals to rally past Liverpool 4-2 two nights earlier.
Here, there would not be any kind of comeback. Syracuse won 5-1, a margin half the size of when the Cougars beat C-NS 9-1 a week earlier at the Twin Rinks, but still convincing enough.
Ahead 1-0 through one period, Syracuse would add two more goals in each of the next two periods as Kaleb Benedict led the way, earning a hat trick by scoring three times and added an assist.
Ryan Durand picked up a trio of assists, with Stephan Matro getting one goal and two assists. Cameron Walsh had the other goal as Luke Dwyer, Zach Delaney and Nick Richards also earned assists.
Tyler Murray had C-NS’s lone goal, but Syracuse netminder Alex Moreno turned back each of the Northstars’ other 24 shots as his counterpart, Kali Van Iuven, had 35 saves.
When Baldwinsville edged Fulton 2-1 that same night, it set up the latest semifinal between the Cougars and Bees, who split their two regular-season encounters.
A night later, it was WG’s turn in the sectional quarterfinals, taking on CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt, who had ousted Cazenovia 5-1 in the opening round.
Exactly three weeks earlier, the Wildcats had needed a goal in the final second of regulation to beat the Brothers 2-1. Now, with much more at stake, there was no need to wait to the end to find out the result.
WG was quite impressive in a 5-0 victory, wasting little time asserting control as, just 3:15 into the first period, Joe McLaughlin scored to put the Wildcats in front.
Even more important was the 79-second stretch late in the period where Jeremy Keyes and James Schneid both put shots past CBA/J-D goalie Joe Salvador, stretching WG’s lead to 3-0.
A scoreless second period did not hurt WG since its defense kept the Brothers from getting on the board. And while it didn’t need any more goals, Jack Mellen and Liam Burns became the Wildcats’ fourth and fifth goal-scorers in the game’s final minutes.
Not only did five different players put pucks in the net for the Wildcats, six others – Billy Fisher, Anthony Felix, Ryan Considine, Jake Kopek, Liam Sexton and Ryan Kemp – earned assists.
All the while, WG’s defense was stellar, turning back CBA/J-D’s attacks and having David Myers stop all 24 shots he faced to set up the sectional semifinal against F-M.
