CAMILLUS – Here again was the West Genesee ice hockey team, with Suffern as the opposition, just as it was last March at Buffalo’s HarborCenter when the two sides collided with a state Division I championship on the line.
While the stakes were far smaller in the Dec. 29 final of the Wildcat Classic at Shove Park, the result proved the same as the Wildcats took a 2-1 defeat to the Mounties.
Prior to this, WG had won its first eight games of the season, including a 4-1 decision over Shenendehowa in the tournament’s opening round.
Suffern had topped Fairport 6-1 in the other opening-round match, setting up a final that, even without much build-up, promised intensity – and delivered.
The Wildcats had seven shots in the first period, but none went in the net and when Charlie Tyrrell converted, the Mounties took a 1-0 advantage to intermission.
WG’s deficit doubled when Jimmy McCafferty put it in the net, but from there Luke Beck would turn back everything and finish the day with 16 saves overall.
With 10 minutes left, the Wildcats converted a power play when Ryan Considine scored off feeds from Will Schneid and Liam Burns, and it pushed hard to tie it, but could not do so.
Still at home in the opening days of 2023, WG took on Ithaca last Wednesday night and, after a bit of a slow start, rounded into form to blank the Little Red 6-0.
Considine’s goal was the only tally in the first period, but in the second, WG added a lot to its 1-0 advantage, finding the net four times.
Schneid doubled the margin a minute into the second, and Will Shields scored four minutes later. Then Michael Hard made it 4-0 just 52 seconds after Schneid’s second tally and Owen Zoanetti completed the run.
Burns, when he converted in the third period, was the Wildcats’ sixth different goal-scorer. Schneid earned three assists, with Burns getting two assists and single assists going to Zoanetti, Shields, Jared Jaeger and Jack Giannuzzi.
Holding Ithaca to just six shots all night, the Wildcats improved to 9-1 ahead of a stretch of three games in four days next week, starting with Ontario Bay and Fayetteville-Manlius and concluding Jan. 13 with a visit to Shove Park from Section V power Victor.
