Cortland Standard .net

Those who braved the cold weather Saturday night to watch the first-place showdown between a pair of highly-ranked state Division II high school hockey teams were not disappointed, unless you were a Cortland-Homer Golden Eagles fan.
Packy Jones scored the only goal of the game at the 9:12 mark of the second period to lift fourth-ranked Skaneateles to a 1-0 victory over the eighth-ranked Golden Eagles at the J.M. McDonald Sports Complex.
The Lakers (7-2 overall) take over first place in the CNYSHL Division II West standings with a 6-1 league mark. Cortland-Homer falls to 6-2 in the league, 8-2 overall.
“We expected a little bit better offensive attack tonight but just seemed a little off in our passing and puck handling,” Golden Eagles coach Don Armstrong said. “Skaneateles is strong and plays very well defensively so they were able to force us out of our typical attack and we did not do a good job adjusting. Still our players battled right to the end of the contest, but were unable to buy a goal tonight.”
The winning goal came on a 2-on-1 breakaway. Dylan VanHoltz skated into position before giving the puck up. VanHoltz slid the puck to Jones for the strong finish.
It would be the only shot to elude Cortland-Homer goalkeeper Corey Broyles, who stopped 21 of 22 shots.
Trevor Diamond was equally impressive between the pipes for the Lakers. Diamond made 23 saves to earn the the shutout.“There were several great scoring chances by both teams throughout the contest,” Armstrong said. “Both goaltenders had tremendous nights. Each goaltender came up with saves that they might not normally be expected to make.
“We had several power-play opportunities with overlapping penalties occurring against Skaneateles,” he added. “That meant there were a couple of times where we had two-man advantages for approximately 20 seconds each, but could not convert.”
The Golden Eagles were 0-for-7 on the power play. Skaneateles went 0-for-3 on the night.
Despite this loss, Armstrong is pleased with the overall play of his team to this point.
“Halfway through our league contests these kids have done a good overall job of developing their play,” he stated. “Our goals-against has been real good with a 1.3 goals-against overall and just under that for league play. Defensively, the entire team has done a great job and our two goaltenders, Corey Broyles and Brandon Paquin, have been very solid in net.”
Cortland-Homer returns to action Thursday. The Golden Eagles travel to Watertown IHC for a 5:30 p.m. contest.