ONONDAGA COUNTY – After a winter’s worth of work, the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool ice hockey teams would make their way into the Section III Division I playoffs this week.
C-NS was home last Wednesday night to face Ontario Bay, and with a quick start and quicker finish, the Northstars were able to double up the Storm, prevailing by an 8-4 margin.
Racing out to a 3-1 edge by the end of the first period, C-NS quieted down a bit in the game’s middle stages, but then struck four times in the final period to get away.
Tanner Long had the best game of his season, getting beyond a hat trick and finishing with four goals as Andrew Davis had a goal and two assists.
Kyle Debejian, Rob Warner and Cameron Walker also converted, with Tyler Milewski getting two assists. Single assists were earned by Nate Bustin, Andrew Matyasik, Braden Porter, Jacob DuBois and Jack Clary.
During Saturday’s regular-season finale against Cazenovia, C-NS had a chance to move to fourth place in the final regular-season Division I standings – and did so, rallying to beat the Lakers 7-5 and finish 7-4 in league play.
It was Cazenovia getting the jump, James Dampson scoring twice and Jack Donlin adding a goal as C-NS stared at a 3-1 deficit, which it only partially made up in the second period.
Trailing 4-3 going to the third, the Northstars again traded goals and then, in the final five minutes, stunned Cazenovia with three straight to tie and then move out in front.
Davis, with two goals and two assists, led the comeback, Hayden Scott adding a goal and two assists. Long and Mylewski each had one goal and one assist, with Debejian and David Cooley also finding the net. Porter, Logan Bucher and Noah Degan also got assists.
Liverpool had a good final week of the regular season, too, earning just its third victory of the winter last Tuesday night when it went to Fulton and put together a 4-2 victory over the Red Raiders.
They traded single goals in the first two periods. Then the Warriors broke out of a 2-2 tie by converting twice, with Fulton unable to answer against James Welch, who had 32 saves.
Overcoming 42 saves by Red Raiders goalie Alex Miller, Evan Haskins got two goals to lead Liverpool. Andrew Gabor and Alex Kirkby also found the net as Bradley Cole contributed an assist.
Then Liverpool went to Shove Park and, on Friday night, a state no. 9-ranked West Genesee side that has netted 25 goals in the two games since it lost to state no. 8-ranked Baldwinsville on Jan. 31.
Welch made sure that didn’t happen again, delivering another stellar performance as, of the Wildcats’ 64 shots (more than one per minute), Welch turned back 61 of them.
But the Warriors only got nine shots on net all night and lost, 3-0, with Ryan Considine leading WG as he scored twice and assisted on the other goal, by Will Schneid.
C-NS’s fast finish to the regular season means a no. 4 seed and a home game in the sectional Division I quarterfinals. Liverpool could get to this round if it beats Fayetteville-Manlius in Tuesday’s opening-round game at State Fair Coliseum.
