CICERO – For the first time this winter, the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool ice hockey teams were in the same building, battling for honors during the annual Optimist Tournament at the Twin Rinks.
Both first-round games on Wednesday proved memorable in their own way. In the Northstars’ case, it meant surviving a long, exhausting shoot-out with New Hartford after the teams played to a 2-2 tie.
C-NS took two early leads as Kyle Debejian and Andrew Davis earned goals, with assists credited to Hayden Scott and Logan Bucher.
Down 2-1, New Hartford tied it in the third period as Kristian Mastrovito-Smith scored once and assisted on Caden Kramer’s goal, the game ultimately going to overtime.
When the OT period didn’t settle it, a shoot-out followed. Both sides converted early, Tanner Long doing so for the Northstars, but a long series of misses followed.
Not until the 10th round, when Tyler Milewski put the puck into the net, was the battle decided, a tribute to the work done by Kali Van Iuven, who had 27 saves overall.
All of this followed Liverpool’s first-round game against reigning sectional Division I champion Syracuse, another showcase for the talents of its star goalie, James Welch.
After giving up first-period goals to Vern Cooke and Brady Hubbard, Welch stopped everything else the Cougrars threw at him, ultimately finishing the game with 39 saves.
Yet even though Matt Markusz scored in the second period off a feed from Kyle Kirkby, the Warriors were unable to catch up and took a 2-1 defeat, managing just 13 shots as it was rarely able to take pressure off Welch.
Then, against New Hartford in Thursday’s consolation game, Liverpool again kept it close – and again absorbed a defeat, falling to the Spartans 1-0.
Garrett Eisenhut’s goal in the first period held up the rest of the way for New Hartford, who had Derek Joy turn away all 16 of the Warriors’ shots. Welch finished with 20 saves.
C-NS then met Syracuse in the final, and it broke open in the second period as the Cougars netted four goals and the Northstars only converted once.
Taking a 7-3 defeat, C-NS still got two goals from Milewski and another from Long, with Davis and Scott each getting two assists. Single assists went to Nick Tangreti and Braden Porter as, for Syracuse, Jameson Bucktooth and Owen Mahar both got two goals and two assists, with Colin Johnson also converting twice.
