A long, frustrating wait for the Baldwinsville ice hockey team to snare a Section III championship is finally at an end. In a hard-fought effort Saturday at Utica Memorial Auditorium, the Bees upended Syracuse 7-4 in the Division I sectional final, scoring goals in well-timed bursts to build a big early lead, and then fending off the Cougars’ furious late charge. For the Bees’ head coach of the last three decades, Mark Lloyd, the joy of the moment made all of the previous heartaches worth it. “It’s the best feeling ever,” said Lloyd. “It’s better than I thought it would be.” Joe Glamos, who scored three times in the final, said that winning for Lloyd was special, but so was winning for the B’ville community and the fans who, through the years, had known all too well what it was like to get close to a sectional title without claiming it. No less than seven times in the last quarter-century, B’ville made it to the sectional final, only to get turned back, including back-to-back defeats to West Genesee in its last two title-game appearances in 2009 and 2010. But the Bees had put an end to WG’s seven-year reign on top last Tuesday when it blanked the Wildcats 5-0 in the sectional semifinal at Lysander. Now, in Utica, it went after Syracuse, no. 4 in the state rankings, with whom it split a pair of regular-season games, winning 4-2 on Dec. 6 at home, but dropping a 3-1 decision at Meachem Rink a month later. When the game faced off, B’ville patiently looked for an opening – and then jumped through it 3:11 into the first period when Adam Tretowicz made a tremendous move streaking down the left side past a Syracuse defender and then ripped a wrist shot past Cougars goalie Sam Walsh. Three minutes later, it was 2-0, again through a breakaway, only this time it was Glamos finding open ice after passes from Isaiah Pompo and Charlie Bertrand and then converting it into a goal. Matt Frye briefly gave Syracuse a respite, scoring at the 9:56 mark, but with 46.8 seconds left in the period Glamos, who had scored twice against West Genesee in the semifinals, again streaked into the Cougars’ end and again beat Walsh. Just having Glamos on the ice was pivotal in this game. He had played in neither of the first two meetings with Syracuse, and Lloyd said his potent presence made a difference. “When Joe gets open ice, it’s lights out,” said Lloyd.
Not content with a 3-1 lead, Pompo streaked to the net 5:52 into the second period off a perfect feed from Glamos and beat Walsh to make it 4-1. Just 53 seconds later, passes from Tretowicz and Lindsay set up Matt Abbott for a power-play goal. By that point, B’ville had taken 11 shots and converted on five of them, so Syracuse replaced Walsh with Jake Polacek, who blanked the Bees the rest of the period and gave the Cougars hope if it could get its offense going – which it did. Collin Thompson scored 1:12 into the third period, cutting B’ville’s margin to 5-2. It maintained that pressure and, despite a Bees power play, converted on a short-handed chance when Nick Matro, fed by Eccles, found the net with 8:30 to play. It got even more nervous for the Bees when the Cougars got a five-on-three chance midway through the period, and though B’ville killed it off, Syracuse kept coming in waves until Matro, with 3:56 left, put in the rebound of Colby Skrupa’s shot and reduced B’ville’s margin to one. “We were hitting the panic button,” said Lloyd.
Now in its own desperate mode, the Bees killed off another power play, by which point Walsh had returned to the net. Then, with 1:26 left, Glamos, fed by Tretowicz, broke free again and, from the left point, fired it past Walsh to complete the hat trick. Abbott added an empty-net tally in the final minute, and as the horn sounded, the helmets, sticks and gloves flew in the air as the Bees celebrated a plateau it had never reached before – but more work remains. With this win, the Bees advance to next Saturday’s Division I regional final against Ithaca, from Section IV, which faces off at 4:30 at The Rink. One more win gets the Bees back to Utica March 14-15 for a third appearance in the state “Frozen Four” as it pursues another first – a state championship.