Boys Fed Hockey Roundup – Monday, February 18th

Niagara Cup Championship Set

It took three overtime periods to set the stage for Super Sunday’s private school championship game at Key Bank Center this coming weekend.

St. Mary’s 3, Canisius 2 – 3 OT

The St. Mary’s Lancers will try to defend their 2018 Niagara Cup championship against the St. Joe’s Marauders in a rematch of last year’s game.

Jared Mangan knocked home a rebound at the 0:38 second mark of the third overtime period against Canisius, punching the Lancers ticket to Super Sunday for the third straight year.

“We really wanted to win this one for our seniors,” Mangan said after the win. “It was a very physical game but we battled through it and kept at it. The winning goal happened so fast, the puck just came right to me and I shot it home.” Jared and his older brother Caleb were born in South Carolina but their parents are native WNYers.

The Crusaders tied the game 2-2 late in the third period to force overtime.

“Tonight we went with match-ups,” Lancers head coach Mark Dantonio said. “We just felt this gave us the best chance to win, glad to see it all work out the way it did.”

Canisius scored the opening goal of the game when defenseman Colin Brown slipped a low shot past Kyle Karoleski in the first period. Jared Mangan responded soon after to tie the game. The teams played a scoreless 2nd period, filled with plenty of good, clean hitting, and no penalties.

Robert Stoklosa gave the Lancers their first lead of the game at 12:27 of the 3rd period, set up by Alex Bialkowski. Will Conmy answered for Canisius with just 4:51 to play in regulation. The Crusaders did a great job of crashing the net for much of this game and that strategy helped them to tie things up.

Both teams traded scoring opportunities in overtime before Mangan closed out the contest.

Game Summary: https://wnyathletics.com/contest/1731

Game Audio Link: http://mixlr.com/wnyathletics/showreel/wny-fed-hockey-niagara-cup-semi-finals-st-marys-vs-canisius

St. Joe’s 5, St. Francis 2

Frank Attea’s short-handed goal at 8:51 of the third period proved to be the game winner as St. Joe’s (20-2-2) defeated St. Francis 5-3 Monday night at HarborCenter in their Niagara Cup semifinal game.

The Marauders raced out to a 2-0 lead in the opening period with goals coming from Mitch Floccare and Kyle Schneider. After a scoreless 2nd period Red Raiders sophomore Sam Cichowski pulled St. Francis to within a goal after scoring on the power play.

The Marauders responded quickly. Matt Orlowski (’20) buried his shot from in close to give St. Joe’s a two goal lead again, then Attea went to work on the penalty kill and delivered a huge goal.

To their credit the Red Raiders didn’t fold. The Marauders shot themselves in the foot (or skate) with costly penalties and St. Francis was all too eager to take advantage. Shane Hobot and Pierce Greene scored just three minutes apart and both while with the man advantage, making the score 4-3.

Marauders head coach Rich Crozier called a time-out to settle his team down. St. Joe’s would score an empty netter to close the deal a short time later. Will Redding outskated a Frannies defender to a loose puck in the Red Raiders zone and tapped home the insurance goal with 0.38 seconds remaining.

“Credit to Frannies, they battled hard,” Crozier said after the game. “This is a great win for our program and sets us up for another opportunity to win a championship. That’s our goal every year as it should be.”

Frannies goaltender Mitch Taylor made 41 saves in a losing effort but was easily one of the three stars of the game.

Connor McKendry and Attea each had two assists for the Marauders.

Game Summary: https://wnyathletics.com/contest/1730

Game Audio Link: http://mixlr.com/wnyathletics/showreel/wny-fed-hockey-private-school-quarterfinals-st-joes-vs-st-franci

The Niagara Cup championship game will be played Sunday at 2:30pm at Key Bank Center.

Tuesday, February 19th games @HarborCenter

WNY Fed Hockey Large School Semifinals:

6pm: Lancaster  vs Niagara Wheatfield

815pm: Williamsville North vs Orchard Park

***All Games Broadcast on Mixlr.com/wnyathletics***

Feature Image Credit/Provided by Andrew Miller (SJCI)