CENTRALNEW YORK – Heading into the holiday break, the Baldwinsville ice hockey team was enjoying its most dominant stretch in years, having won six in a row, all by comfortable margins and including a trio of shutouts.
The win streak had continued Dec. 15 against Fulton, where the Bees were scoreless in the first period – and then put double digits on the board the rest of the way to rout the Red Raiders 10-0.
Sam Ciappa led this charge, setting a new career mark as he scored four times to go with an assist, while Keegan Lynch had two goals and one assist.
Jake Gipe had a goal and two assists as Matt Fawwaz had one goal and one assist. Hunter Evans and Cole Schuyler earned the other goals, with assists also going to Matt Carner, Nick Cary, Brayden Penafeather-Stevenson, Trevor Sutton, Garrett Church and Fernando Moreno.
This, along with a 3-0 win over Fayetteville-Manlius Dec. 7, had shown that B’ville could keep an opponent quiet – something it did again at Lysander on Dec. 17 when it handled Watertown IHC 5-0.
Here, the Bees did net a pair of first-period goals, then went quiet in the second before a late barrage while its defense still needed to work. The Cavaliers took 22 shots, all stopped by Jon Schirmer.
Five different players – Carner, Lynch, Fawwaz, Penafeather-Stevenson and Schuyler – earned the five goals. Lynch got two assists as single assists went to Schuyler, Carner, Moreno, Church and Jamie Gipe.
When the Bees went north to face Ontario Bay Tuesday night, B’ville would lean heavily on Carner, who all but carried his side to a 6-3 victory over the Storm.
Led by Bryce Goodnough (one goal, two assists) Ontario Bay tied the Bees 2-2 through one period and still only trailed by one before a trio of B’ville goals in the third period put the game away.
All night long, Carner tore through the Storm’s defense, not letting up until he had set a new career mark with five goals, two of them assisted by Penafeather-Stevenson.
Ciappa had the other goal, with Lynch picking up a single assist. Nate Sotherden started in goal and turned back 19 of Ontario Bay’s 22 shots.
At Casey Park on Tuesday, B’ville would play Auburn, looking for its seventh win in a row before exiting 2021.
