SYRACUSE — The winners of Section III’s 2026 boys hockey champions will be decided in a pair of games Monday at the Upstate Medical Arena.
No. 1 seeds Whitesboro and West Genesee will take the ice for games against defending champion Skanealeles and streaking Cazenovia, respectively. Whitesboro (15-7-0) and No. 2 Skaneateles (18-4-0) take the ice first at 5 pm. in Division II, followed by West Genesee (17-4-1) and No. 6 Cazenovia (14-5-2) in Division I at 7:45.
Whitesboro has beaten Oswego 9-3 and Clinton 7-1 in the playoffs after losing its final regular season game, and has won nine of its last 11 games overall. Whitesboro and Skaneateles split two regular season decisions with Whitesboro winning 4-1 at home in early January and losing 4-3 on the road three weeks later.
Skaneateles shut out Cortland/Homer 3-0 in the quarterfinals and defeated 4-3 in overtime in the semis. The Lakers enter the title game with six consecutive victories, a steak that started against Whitesboro January 29.
Junior Marco Benedetto, Whitesboro’s leading scorer, has scored five playoff goals, including three in the team’s semifinal victory. Classmates Collin Aceto and Aiden Nofri also have double-digit goal totals this winter.
Junior Braeden Taggert leads Skaneateles with 36 goals and has three four-goal games, including the win over Whitesboro. Luke Bobbett has scored 14 goals with a team-high 42 assists, and Wyatt Pinkley has 10 goals this season.
Skaneateles has won three consecutive state championships and all four Division II sectional crowns contested post-COVID.
Whitesboro was beaten by Skaneateles in the 2020 sectional final but had earned a spot in the state semifinals with a regional win as a wild card before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic canceled Final Four play.
In Division I, West Genesee has allowed one postseason goal and three during a current nine-game win streak. Meanwhile, Cazenovia has won eight games in a row and allowed three goals in its last five games; the Lakers have won twice on the road in the playoffs, 5-1 at Syracuse and 2-1 at Rome Free Academy, after shutting out Ontario Bay in a play-in game.
Jack Casey leads Cazenovia with 24 goals, and senior goalie Ezra Stahlberg had his third game with more than 40 saves this season in the semifinals.
West Genesee was last year’s state runner-up and won the 2023 championship.
This article originally appeared on Times Telegram: Top seed Whitesboro meets defending champ in sectional hockey final
Reporting by Jon Rathbun, Herkimer Times Telegram / Times Telegram
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
