NEDROW – With a Section III and state regional championship already in her possession, Skaneateles girls ice hockey senior goaltender Belle Wells did everything within her power to try to make it happen again.
In a tense, riveting sectional final against Clinton Wednesday night at Onondaga Nation Arena, Wells turned back shots for nearly five full periods before the Warriors broke through and, by a 1-0 margin, claimed the sectional championship.
Wells put up 36 saves, a good deal of them in the pair of seven minute, 30-second overtime periods that followed 45 minutes of scoreless play in regulation.
But just when it looked like the Lakers would make it to a full intermission with a clean sheet of ice, with 11.6 seconds left in the second OT Clinton’s Mackinley Ronan, from the right circle, flung a shot that eluded Wells and crashed into the net.
Clinton’s players rushed the ice and mobbed Ronan, while the Lakers, who had rode Wells’ tremendous goaltending to the 2022 sectional and regional crowns, could only watch.
From the game’s outset, it was clear that the two rivals, who knew each other so well, would play another low-scoring affair, Clinton having prevailed 2-0 on Nov. 30 at home and 2-1 when they met again Jan. 4 at Allyn Arena.
Neither side generated many serious looks in the first period, but as the second period wore on the chances improved, with the Lakers largely leaning on Harvard-bound senior Scout Oudemool to try and get her team in front.
Point-blank, Clinton goalie Casey Clausen stopped Oudemool at the six-minute mark of the second, with defender Alyssa Narslico also making several timely strips when Oudemool rushed at Clausen.
Meanwhile, Wells was steady, accumulating stops and rarely letting the Warriors get second shots as she smothered the puck. Her biggest save was an up-close stop on Katherine Elbrecht with 1:15 left in regulation.
Now the Lakers could win it, especially when it picked up a power play that carried over into the first OT. Twice, Oudemool had open looks to win it and, twice, Clausen turned them back, the most important of her 20 saves.
Yet through much of the third period and OT sessions, the Lakers were defending its own net, either blocking shots or, more often, seeing Wells keep the game alive – until Ronan’s shot decided matters.
Clinton now advances to this weekend’s state regional championships, which will take place, for them, right close to home at Utica’s brand-new Nexus Center. The semifinals are Friday at 6 p.m. and the finals Saturday at 1:30.
