ROME – As it went into the holiday break, the Baldwinsville ice hockey team could take quite a bit of comfort from the way it fared in consecutive road games.
Most important was the Bees’ 3-1 victory over Rome Free Academy Thursday night at Kennedy Arena, which allowed B’ville to maintain its place alongside West Genesee atop the league standings.
Prior to this, the Black Knights had won three of its four league games and were 4-1-1 overall, while the Bees had not played for more than a week since a 2-1 win over Fayetteville-Manlius at State Fair Coliseum on Dec. 13.
In that game against the Hornets, Fernando Moreno and Trevor Sutton both netted second-period goals to erase an early 1-0 deficit, with Keegan Lynch, Brayden Penafeather-Stevenson and Brady Garcia joining Lynch in the assist column.
To help the Bees hold off F-M’s late attempts to catch up, the defense held the Hornets in check, Jon Schirmer only having to make 16 saves, far less than Hornets counterpart Chris Finger’s 42 saves.
Much the same thing happened against RFA, with B”ville controlling the puck most of the way and forcing Black Knights goalie Donte Sparace to make 36 saves, more than twice that of Schirmer, who again stopped 16 of 17 shots.
Staying patient, the Bees led 1-0 going to the third period, where it overcame Jack Pylman’s goal with a pair of tallies as Lynch anchored the attack, ultimately assisting on all three B’ville goals.
Twice, Sutton benefited from Lynch’s passes as he and Jake Gipe converted, with Penafeather-Stevenson getting two assists and a single assist going to Mitch Burlingame.
At 5-1 overall, B’ville would play twice during the holiday break, hosting Whitesboro and Auburn.
