Eagles soaring higher than Jets
Cairns’ 28 saves help Bethlehem boys take sectional hockey crown
SCHENECTADY — Prior to the opening faceoff, Bethlehem forward Tyler Fabian stressed the importance of the opening shift of the Section II championship game to his linemates.
Once the game was underway, Fabian backed up his pregame talk with a goal on the first shift and once the Eagles had the lead, the title hopes of the Capital District Jets began to fade under the strong goaltending of Bethlehem senior Rory Cairns, who stopped 28 shots to help the Eagles to a 4-1 win Tuesday night at Messa Rink.
Bethlehem (20-3-0) advances to face Section I champion Suffern in Saturday’s state tournament regional at a Section II site to be determined.
Bethlehem won the Section II title three years in a row and earned a trip to the state Final Four in Buffalo following a win over Suffern three years ago, though the tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“All year it was our goal to get here and to get back to Buffalo,” Bethlehem coach Dylan Lappe said. “In 2020, it got cut short for us. We have a few players from that team who knew what it felt like. For them to be working hard, this is our first step.”
After Capital District (14-9-0) had the first three shots on goal in the game, Fabian made the most of Bethlehem’s first shot on Jet goaltender Nicholas Mirabile, converting a pass from Will Clark for the game’s opening goal at the one minute, 48 seconds mark.
“I was talking about it with my linemates before the game in the locker room,” Fabian said. “We had to come out hot if we wanted to take it and what do you know, right away we came out buzzing, got into it and we score.”
The Jets had a 15-9 advantage in shots on goal in the first period on Cairns, who came into the game with a microscopic 1.16 goals-against average.
Cairns came up big on a partial breakaway by Joshua Mckinney 60 seconds after Fabian’s goal to preserve the lead for his biggest save of the night.
Cairns was a freshman backup the last time Bethlehem won the Section II title.
“I’ve been here four years. Since that day, this is what I’ve been working for and what we’ve
been working for,” Cairns said. “There are four of us that were on that team, we’ve been talking about it. Every playoff game, we scored in the first two shifts and it is a good security blanket.”
Bethlehem controlled the play in the second period, outshooting CD 15-5 and pushed its lead to 3-0 on goals by Owen Godlewski and Hugh Sullivan.
Godlewski’s goal was set up by a nice feed from Clark, who sent Godlewski in alone on a breakaway before going to his backhand to beat Mirabile at 5:47.
Sullivan pushed the lead to 3-0 less than three minutes later and Tyler Bitely’s goal early in the third period made the score 4-0.
Cairns’ bid for his eighth shutout of the season was spoiled by a Colin Wilson goal with 2:14 left in regulation as the Jets kept scrapping until the final whistle.
“That was not the way you want to start, they are very strong defensively,” Capital District coach Scott Rock said. “We gave it our best, it was a battle of offense and defense and their goalie won tonight. He is a heck of a goalie.”