Thomas advances to hockey Final Four with win over Skaneateles

By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA

This time, there actually will be more hockey to be played by the Webster Thomas Titans.

This time, their celebration after the regional victory wasn’t wasted energy.

This time, there is still a state championship to chase.

With Saturday afternoon’s 4-2 victory over Skaneateles, the state’s second-ranked team, the Titans are again headed to the Division 2 state Final Four at the LECOM Harborcenter in downtown Buffalo. They will play Starpoint (19-4-1, Section VI) at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

And this time, they’ll actually get to go.

“In 2020 we almost ready to get on the bus and we were told no,” Thomas coach David Evans said.

The COVID-19 pandemic was just ramping up in New York and high school sports shut down. Players on that 2020 Thomas team could only wonder what might have been.

This year, the current group of Titans will try to make their own history, and make up for what their predecessors didn’t have the chance to do.

“I happy for our kids and I’m happy for the alumni,” said Evans, whose third-ranked team improved to 17-3-2.

The Titans are moving on thanks to clutch scoring, their patented team defense and one big-time glove save by junior goalie Jackson Gruttadauria.

Junior forward Jason Tucker scored the gut-punch tie-breaking goal 1:35 into the third period – just seven seconds after Skaneateles had drawn even – and Thomas finally clinched victory when senior forward Dylan LaChance fired into an empty net with 49 seconds remaining.

But 43 seconds earlier, Skaneateles standout senior defenseman Luke Renaud was staring down Gruttadauria, quite sure he was firing in the tying goal. Knifing down the slot with speed, he fired a low wrist shot labeled for the right corner of the net but Gruttadauria snared the shot and kept the score 3-2.

“He’s just an unreal goalie,” Tucker said.

One shift later, LaChance scored the clinching goal and the Titans were Buffalo-bound.

“Our saying is that we want to be better tomorrow than we were today,” Evans said. “I’m super proud of our guys. We put in a game plan this week and they had three days to figure it out and they executed.”

Much of that strategy was based on defensive zone play. The Titans did spend considerable time in their own end, but they gave up very few shots in tight, denied second chances and reversed the puck often to escape the Skaneateles forecheck.

They did need to overcome an early deficit. Renaud put the Lakers ahead 1-0 just 2:19 into the game when his wrist shot from the center point hit Gruttadauria high in the chest, caromed strangely upward and dropped behind the goalie and into the net.

The score didn’t change until the second period, when Aiden Stappenbeck shoveled home a Joseph Crescimanni rebound at 40 seconds on a power play.

Thomas then took the lead at 14:13 when LaChance worked into the bottom of the right wing circle before feeding the low slot, where Jack Stappenbeck gained position and fired a shot under goalie Chad Lowe.

The Lakers (21-2) used a power play to tie the score at 1:28 of the third period, with Renaud, again at the center point, able to find a lane for his shot and hit the top left corner of the net.

The Skaneateles hadn’t even stopped celebrating when Crescimanni and Tucker combined to deliver the game-breaking goal off the ensuing faceoff.

Crescimanni gained control of the puck and sped over the Lakers blue line and down the left of the slot, drawing two defenders his way. He then passed to the goal mouth and Tucker, barreling straight down the slot, buried it.

“You throw it at the net,” Crescimanni said, “and good things happen, that’s what they say.”

Especially when it’s a perfect pass.

“Playing on his (Crescimanni), it’s a privilege, and we talk about it all the time: When he’s going in, just go the net.”

The Titans then were able to hold off Skaneateles for the final 15:25, surviving the extra-attacker pressure to earn the fourth regional championship plaque in the past 14 years (2008, 2019, 2020, 2022).

“There’s always pressure,” Tucker said, “but I know how good of a defensive team we are.”