Amid a string of games pushed back by the frequent winter snows, the West Genesee ice hockey team did not let anything derail its season-long surge.
Still parked atop the state Division I rankings, the Wildcats defended that spot again last Wednesday night at Shove Park with a 7-0 shutout of Ithaca.
Having not played since its big Dec. 28 win over Suffern, WG did not show any rust and didn’t need much time to get control against the Little Red.
It was 3-0 by the end of the first period, with a mid-game slump followed by three more in the final period as, again, Jonah Vormwold recorded a hat trick, his fourth of the season.
With his three goals Vormwold built his season total to 20. Help came from Parker Berg and Harrison Walker, who each had one goal and one assist.
Matt Schneid and Chase Denman had the other goals, while Carson Berg had two assists. Single assists were credited to Luke Alfieri, Christian Ball, Nick Meluni, Sam Vormwald, J.J. McCarthy, Kaiden McBride and
Brayden Carvel. Luke Beck stopped all 23 of Ithaca’s shots.
Games against Broome County and Mohawk Valley this week will tune up the Wildcats for its big Jan. 21 battle with Rome Free Academy at Kennedy Arena, their first encounter since last winter’s memorable sectional final.
Skaneateles was off last week, but Syracuse had a weekend trip to the Albany area which started last Friday with a 6-1 loss to Queensbury where Jeremiah Griffin’s second-period goal, assisted by Drew Schneider, prevented a shutout. Conor Rose finished with 36 saves.
A far closer 6-5 defeat to Adirondack followed a day later, which dropped the Cougars’ overall record to 5-6-1 going into tough games this week against RFA and Cicero-North Syracuse.
Against Adirondack, the Cougars were down 6-2 through two periods but nearly made it up in the final period. Ryan Victoriano led the comeback attempt with two goals and one assist, Will Scanlon adding a goal and assist. Ryan Thomson and Ryan Finnerty added goals, Schneider getting two assists and Gaho Shenandoah a single assist.
