SYRACUSE – While most of the Christian Brothers Academy/Jamesville-DeWitt ice hockey team filed off the ice at Upstate Medical University Arena at the War Memorial Monday night at the conclusion of the Section III Division II championship game, a 4-0 loss to Skaneateles, a few players lingered.
Standing or kneeling on their blue line, they watched the Lakers congratulate each other, receive their first-place medals and pose for pictures with the sectional championship banner.
Whatever the reasons to do this, the Brothers could take plenty of pride in the effort it gave forth in this title game against the reigning sectional champions.
Energy and competitive spirit were not the issue in this game. Skaneateles goaltender Chad Lowe certainly was.
Start to finish, Lowe kept turning away CBA/J-D’s attacks, not letting up until he had recorded 33 saves and had blanked the Brothers for the third time this winter.
CBA/J-D head coach Mike McKie said that Lowe, through his work all season, may have got into the heads of his team, having already shut out the Brothers 4-0 in December at Allyn Arena and 3-0 in January at Onondaga Nation Arena.
The game’s pattern was set in a first period where both sides played at even strength and CBA/J-D took eight shots, all stopped by Lowe, including Quinn Wimer’s point-blank attempt midway through the period.
It remained scoreless until, with 3:10 left in the first, Skaneateles’ Jack Torrey broke free on the left and put a wrist shot past Ben Lovell, Alex Whitlock and Noah Testa getting the assists.
It carried that over into a second period that the Brothers mostly controlled, spending ample time in the Lakers’ end, only to see nine more shots stopped by Lowe as Skaneateles also killed off a pair of CBA/J-D power plays.
Then, with 3:40 left in the second, defenseman Sutton Paro threaded a perfect pass from the left at center ice to Henry Major streaking up the middle, and Major poured in his 25th goal of the season to double the Lakers’ margin to 2-0.
Major returned to land his 26th goal early in the third period, and Andrew Gaglione scored on a power play with 4:27 left as Lowe made 16 more saves to earn his 10th shutout of the season and 20th of his career.
CBA/J-D finished its season at 15-8. It had a young roster with just four seniors – Joe Dotterer, Finn Wheeler, Alex Binsack and Nate Vault, meaning a large returning cast in 2023-24 can set out to have a different ending than the one to which many of them bore full witness.
