ONONDAGA COUNTY – For a moment late last Tuesday night at Three Rivers Athletic Complex, the West Genesee ice hockey team celebrated the fact that it had caught Baldwinsville and was likely headed for overtime.
Then those celebrations got dashed, officials determining that the shot which tied this first-place Division I showdown with 10.9 seconds to play was hit with a high stick, so the goal was disallowed.
That tiny margin allowed the Bees to hang on and prevail, 5-4, over the Wildcats, the first time B’ville had got the best of this rivalry since that epochal four-overtime battle in the 2018 sectional semifinals.
In this battle between two sides ranked in the state top 10, B’ville, winners of 12 in a row, proved right from the outset, that it was far removed from the side the Wildcats beat 6-1 two months ago in Camillus.
Carrying most of the play in the first period, the Bees went up at the 6:11 mark when Trevor Sutton, on the power play, fired a shot from just beyond the blue line that fluttered past WG goaltender Luke Beck.
Garrett Sutton then made it 2-0 late in the first period, only to have the Wildcats’ Will Schneid answer 25 seconds later and then tie it on the power play early in the second.
It didn’t stay 2-2 for long. Nick Cary struck two minutes after Schneid’s tally and, again, WG quickly responded, Jack Giannuzzi taking just 39 seconds to beat Jon Schirmer and make it 3-3.
B’ville took the lead for good with Garrett Sutton’s shot from the point at the 9:44 mark of the second. Even more important, as it turned out, was Fernando Moreno deflecting a shot into the net with just 35 seconds left in the frame.
Carrying that 5-3 lead into the third, the Bees would spend most of that period in its own end, defending hard as the Wildcats controlled the flow of play.
Liam Burns converted on the power play with 10:08 left to cut the margin to one, and WG pushed hard to get back even, setting up a memorable conclusion.
After a brief Bees flurry with one minute left, the Wildcats attacked and pulled Beck for the extra skater. It worked the puck around until, with 10.9 seconds to play, a shot got through traffic and past Schirmer.
WG’s players celebrated – only to have the officials wave off the goal because they determined that the puck was hit by a high stick. That forced the face-off into the other end of the ice, allowing B’ville to hang on.
Jared Jaeger picked up three assists, with Schneid joining Ryan Considine and Owen Zoanetti earning single assists. Beck had 24 saves and Schirmer got 18 saves.
Without much time to recuperate, WG had to come home to Shove Park Thursday to face a Syracuse side also vastly improved from the one that struggled in the same season-opening tournament where the Wildcats beat B’ville.
What the Cougars could not have expected was just how mad WG was about what happened in Lysander, something it expressed throughout a 12-4 victory where it erupted for nine goals in the first two periods to quickly decide matters.
Owen Zoanetti led the way with three goals and two assists. Jack Mellen got two goals and two assists. Schneid had four assists and Jaeger three assists as Considine and Burns both got a goal and two assists. Michael Hard, David Petrus and Evan Zoanetti also had goals as Jameson Bucktooth had three of Syracuse’s four goals.
