ONONDAGA COUNTY – Having earned home-ice advantage for their respective post-season games, the Fayetteville-Manlius and Christian Brothers Academy/Jamesville-DeWitt ice hockey teams wanted to reward their fans with victories.
The Hornets barely did so, needing to endure two overtimes with Cazenovia Wednesday night at Cicero Twin Rinks before finally pulling off a 3-2 victory over the Lakers.
All season long F-M and Cazenovia were at close range. When they first played Jan. 15 at Morrisville State IcePlex, it went back and forth but was not resolved, a 4-4 tie where the teams were close to even on shots (F-M 34, Cazenovia 33) and the Hornets got two goals from Nico Capriotti, plus single goals from Drew Mayne and Dimitri Sergeev.
Had Cazenovia won this game, it would have hosted F-M again as the no. 4 seed. Instead, it was the Hornets on home ice finding that, again, the Lakers could stay with them.
The two sides traded goals in each of the first two periods. Capriotti and Will Sanzone converted for F-M, with Henry Miller netting both of Cazenovia’s goals.
All through the third period and the first OT session Cazenovia had a majority of the chances to break the tie, but F-M goalie Sean Lamarche kept turning them away, ultimately working his total to 37 saves, compared to 22 for Lakers counterpart Ezra Stahlberg.
Only in the second OT did Henry Dougherty emerge to push the game-winner home, his 12th goal of the season. Sanzone and Connor McDonald each got credit for assists.
And it leads the Hornets back to Shove Park where, next Tuesday night at 6:30, it faces top seed and defending champion West Genesee (a team it lost to 7-1 in December at the Twin Rinks) in the sectional semifinals.
Meanwhile, CBA/J-D’s late-season surge did mean that it had the no. 2 seed in Division II which meant that if it defeated no. 7 seed Auburn last Thursday night it would stay at Onondaga Nation Arena for the semifinal against Whitesboro.
And the Brothers were successful, topping the Maroons 6-3 fueled by a mid-game surge.
They were tied 1-1 going into the second period, but CBA/J-D struck for three unanswered goals, allowing it to absorb some Auburn production in the late going without having to surrender that advantage.
Six different players got those six goals, with Brody and Logan Novak each getting two assists to go with their lone tallies.
Three others – Jacob Dubrey, Grady Shanly and Jack Dement – finished with one goal and one assist, while Denver Qiao had the other goal. Henry Boyton picked up a pair of assists and Coby Steele contributed an assist as Justin Buffum recorded 20 saves.
This Thursday night at 6:30 it’s CBA/J-D against Whitesboro in the Division II sectional semifinal, with the winner to get Skaneateles or Clinton in the March 3 sectional title game.
