By TIM IRVING
Fairport and Gates came into their game at Genesee Valley Ice Arena with similar records and played 60 minutes of even hockey.
Clearly, the records are not indicative of the potential of two talented teams.
The Red Raiders won 3-1, all four goals scored in the third period, for their third victory of the season.
Fairport goalie Connor McRae made his season debut, stopping 19 shots from the combined Gates/Wayne/Eastridge/Wheatland-Chili squad to earn his first varsity victory.
“He made a couple of big stops, especially in the first period to keep us in it, “ Fairport coach Chris Moretter said.
Spartans’ goalie Charles Healey stopped 28 shots and both netminders had shutouts going into the third period.
Moretter said of Healey, “You’re not going to score on a direct shot, you’re going to have to create some traffic, so, we tried to preach that in between periods.”
Just over three minutes into the third, Fairport won a face-off outside their own zone. Cody Kaiser won the puck along the boards and sent Ryan Malinak and Alex Goldan in two-on-one. Malinak hit Goldan for the one-time and a 1-0 Red Raiders lead.
Three minutes later, the Spartans (3-7-0) found themselves on a power play. The puck came to the point for Blake Fennell. His shot was tipped out near the face-off circle by Eastridge senior Ryan Greenhagen to tie the game at one.
Three minutes later, Fairport (3-7-3) got the traffic in front of Healey that Moretter knew they needed and defenseman John Myers scored through a screen for a 2-1 lead.
“We don’t have that go-to line,” Moretter said, “we have to try to produce goals through hard work, so it was a really big effort for us to get a couple past him.”
Kaiser tacked on an empty net goal with 1:50 left to leave the final.
Each team has three wins but they each had a chance to win each game.
Moretter said, “They’re always good games, so if we clean up some of the mistakes, I think we can certainly be in any game we play,” pointing towards a 1-0 loss last week to State-ranked Penfield.
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