CENTRAL NEW YORK – To say that it was an unpleasant Tuesday evening for the Christian Brothers Academy/Jamesville-DeWitt and Fayetteville-Manlius ice hockey teams understated it.
Despite its solid 6-3-2 record the Brothers were run over by reigning two-times state Division II champion Skaneateles in an 8-0 decision at Onondaga Nation Arena as, that same night, the Hornets fell 5-1 to Watertown IHC at Cicero Twin Rinks.
Even on home ice at Nedrow CBA/J-D found itself trying to solve a Skaneateles side who had won seven in a row and also had topped the Brothers 6-1 at Allyn Arena in the Nov. 26 season opener.
For a period it was tight, but the state no. 1-ranked Lakers turned a 1-0 advantage into a 5-0 lead by the time they reached the second intermission and forcing CBA/J-D to switch goalies.
Between them, Justin Buffum and Elijah McCutcheon had 23 saves, but Skaneateles got four goals from Cole Palmer, four assists from Luke Bobbett and two goals from Kaden Rutledge as Luke Logan added three assists.
Later that same night F-M, playing its first game in 11 days, was off its rhythm from the outset and IHC took full advantage of it, jumping out to a 4-0 advantage by the end of the first period.
Though it got on the board with Jack Lalik’s second-period goal assisted by Henry Dougherty, the Hornets could not fully recover from this jolt. IHC had five different goal-scorers to overcome Sean Lamarche’s 18 saves.
F-M played a lot better 24 hours later at Morrisville State IcePlex against Cazenovia, getting the game to overtime but ultimately settling for a 4-4 tie with the Lakers.
This game was back and forth from the outset, with the Hornets grabbing a 2-1 lead through one period only to have Cazenovia rally and pull even, 3-3, by the end of the second.
An exchange of third-period goals led to OT, where it would remain unresolved as Nico Capriotti earned two of the Hornets’ four goals, the others going to Drew Mayne and Dimitri Sergeev.
Seven different F-M players – Dougherty, Lalik, Will Sanzone, Connor McDonald, Greyson Mucha, Nikolas Sergeev and Jack Schalk – picked up single assists. Mac Moses, in goal, recorded 29 saves.
As for CBA/J-D, it had back-to-back games late in the week starting Thursday against visiting Clinton, where it had a complete turnaround from the Skaneateles game and shut out the Comets 6-0.
They were even in shots, but everything Clinton threw at Buffum was turned back as he recorded 35 saves for his shutout.
Grady Shanly led the way on the other end for the Brothers, recording his first three-goal hat trick of the season as Logan Novak produced three assists to go with his lone goal.
Liam Harty got a goal and assist, with Denver Qiao also converting. Henry Boynton, Brody Novak and Coby Steele added assists
Then, hosting Rochester Aquinas on Friday night, the Brothers got into another high-scoring affair, but was not quite able to keep up in a 7-5 defeat to the Irish.
Aquinas blanked CBA/J-D until the second period and then equaled everything the Brothers produced. Shanly, Qiao, Griffon Filighera, Brody Novak and Logan Novak had one goal apiece, with Dement and Steele joining Shanly in the assist column and Will Vigneault making 30 saves.
The two teams which share the Twin Rinks, F-M and Cicero-North Syracuse, would meet on Tuesday before the Hornets host Rome Free Academy Thursday just after the Black Knights’ own highly-anticipated showdown with West Genesee. CBA/J-D’s lone game this week is Friday at Whitesboro.
