SYRACUSE – In one of the area high school ice hockey season’s most pressure-packed moments, a freshman goaltender stopped a senior forward and, by doing so, may have settled a regular-season championship race.
Syracuse held off West Genesee 6-5 in a showdown Tuesday night at Meachem Rink that exceeded its considerable expectations, from first shot to last.
And it was that last shot that will be long remembered.
Trailing by one as the final seconds wound down, the Wildcats made one more rush up the ice with an extra attacker. When a Cougars player prevented a clear scoring attempt, a penalty shot was awarded.
Just 1.2 seconds remained, so whatever happened here would determine if the game would be settled in regulation, or go to overtime.
Jeremy Keyes, WG’s senior forward with a goal and three assists on the night, took the shot. Waiting for him was Syracuse freshman Connor Rose, who despite allowing five goals had amassed 36 saves.
Skating in from the right side, Keyes did not fake. Instead, he aimed a shot low – which is exactly what Rose guessed he would do, and he cleanly stopped the puck.
Moments later, the Cougars celebrated a victory in the renewal of a neighborhood rivalry that also happened to have first place in Division I on the line, since neither team had lost a league game yet this winter.
Having not played an important game against one another since the 2020 Section III final, the two sides packed enough excitement and drama into 51 minutes of hockey to make up for all the lost time.
They traded first-period goals three minutes apart – Jameson Bucktooth for the Cougars, Joe Snyder for the Wildcats – before WG broke the 1-1 tie by converting twice in a span of 18 seconds, Keyes assisting on Will Schneid’s go-ahead goal and Ryan Kemp doubling the advantage.
But Syracuse fought back. Owen Mahar converted not long after the Wildcats’ outburst and then Tommy Rioux tied it, 3-3, early in the second period with an end-to-end rush.
All of this served as a prelude to a whirlwind third period.
Keyes scored to put WG in front 4-3, only to have Mahar answer less than 90 seconds later and then, with 12:03 left, complete his hat trick by again going end-to-end to put one past Luke Beck to give the Cougars a 5-4 lead.
Even when Syracuse picked up a five-minute major penalty midway through the period, Mahar, in a four-on-four situation, found open ice again and then fired home his fourth goal of the night with exactly six minutes to play.
That would be needed since WG went six-on-four, pulling Beck, and moved within one with 2:26 left on Jared Jaeger’s goal, setting up the remarkable conclusion.
Rioux and Bucktooth both picked up a pair of assists, with Adam Frye adding an assist. WG saw Ryan Stratton get two assists as single assists went to Jaeger, Ryan Considine and Patrick Quinn. Beck recorded 28 saves.
Even though Syracuse is atop the league standings, it still has tough league games left against Cazenovia later this week and Baldwinsville next Tuesday if it wants to earn the no. 1 sectional playoff seed.
Skaneateles is, of course, bound for another top seed in the Division II sectional playoffs, which it reinforced last Tuesday by going to Whitesboro and defeating the Warriors 5-1.
Building a 4-1 advantage through two periods, the Lakers saw Jack Torrey score twice and Garrett Krieger land a goal and three assists, with Andrew Falkenberg stepping up to match Krieger’s three-assist output.
Henry Major got a goal and two assists. Jack Weeks also scored as single assists went to Carter Corbett and Andrew Gaglione. Chad Lowe, in goal, stopped 18 of Whitesboro’s 19 shots.
