Six teams in action Tuesday
Last season head coach Bob Klimowicz helped guide the Frontier, Lake Shore, Orchard Park (FLOP) girls’ varsity hockey team to their first league championship. On Tuesday they will set out to defend that title, with a rematch of last season’s Section VI championship game against KenGI (Kenmore West, East and Grand Island).
Last year the FLOP finished second in league standings with an overall record of 14-3-1. Last year senior’s Megan Roche and Frangelica Bautz accounted for 32 of the teams 80 goals. The FLOP will turn to the Kromer sisters, Mary and Emily along with Haylee Tatar to form the top line. Abigail Lillis, jessica Peters and Taylor Gehen will round out the top six forwards.
Tatar and Gehen did not play in 2016-17.
Also returning to the FLOP is an all-star defensive core in Brooke Becker, Gabby DeMeo and Sirena Fitzery. Becker earned first team All-Fed honors as a freshman last season and is already verbally committed to Providence. Jessica Carey, Grace Hennigan and newcomer Raegan Compise round out the defensive unit.
Maggie Spyche and Tori Cottrell will return to split time in net. The duo combined for six shutouts last season.
KenGI, always considered a tough out in WNY Girls Fed was dominated last season by the FLOP, losing all four contests by a combined score of 17-4. This season KenGI will ice a much younger team than in previous years. There starting goaltender is just an eighth grader but Ellie Simmons proved last season that she is capable of winning big games.
In addition to Simmons, KenGI has another six players not yet in high-school.
Which means this team will rely heavily on the experience of their captain Jenna House and assistants Rosie Boyko, Chloe Moore and Nina Stockman.
Offensively they’ll look for ways to fill the void left by Olivia Smith and Hannah Gallivan who graduated last year. Abigail Blair (GI) scored 11 goals last season as a freshman. She has good puck handling skills and speed. Jaclyn MacVittie (Ken-East) will start the year healthy after dealing with an injury early last season. Stockman is likely to improve on her eight goal output a season ago.
Jeff Orlowski returns for an eighth season as head coach for KenGI.
Meanwhile Chris Malicki is back behind the bench for the Monsignor Martin (MM) team which takes on Lancaster, Iroquois, Depew (LIDS) today at Holiday.
Fourteen players return to the only team made up of all private school players. Gone are goaltender Brianna Gawronski, defenseman Danielle Bos and forward Kaitlin Drew-Mead.
Malicki wants this team to go out and play as a team. He’ll depend on his upperclassmen to provide leadership. MM relied heavily on Drew-Mead last season for offense and Gawronski was the top goaltender in the league last season. Drew-Mead had 20 goals in nineteen games in 2016-17. The next closest was Kayla Blas who scored six in her junior season.
Williamsville scored their first victory of the season, a 2-0 shutout Monday afternoon against Hamburg, Eden, Sweet Home (HEWS). They are back at it today against Clarence, Amherst, Sweet Home (CASH) coached by Nicola Adimey.
Last season CASH made it to the Section VI semi-finals after finishing the regular season 8-9-0. “We have a full team this year,” Adimey said. “There is lots of talent and the girls are excited with 2 goalies and 4 complete lines to go all out.” Emma Faso returns for her junior season after finishing second in the scoring race to her teammate Julia Mings (graduated). Casey Adimey, is a swift skating defenseman that can put up offensive numbers.
Adimey is excited about a new crop of players as well, Hannah and Sara Barrett, along with Madison Leeper are experienced travel players that could make an impact.
Upcoming Games
MON 11/27/17 4:30PM Lanc/Iroq/Depew (LIDS) vs Fron/LakeSH/OP (FLOP)
TUES 11/28/17 4PM Clar/Amh/SweetH (CASH) vs Lanc/Iroq/Depew (LIDS)
TUES 11/28/17 7:40PM Ham/Eden/WS (HEWS) vs Ken/GI (KENGI)
League Rosters, Stats and Standings
wnygirlshockey.com
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