KEN/GI/PORT DOWNS CASH TO KICK OFF SEASON

Year 15 of the Western New York Girls’ Varsity Ice Hockey Federation kicked off on Tuesday night at the brand-new Paddock Chevrolet Ice Arena, and the game at hand didn’t disappoint.

The first game played at the new rink pitted Kenmore/Grand Island/Lockport (Ken/GI/Port) against Clarence/Amherst/Sweet Home, and the former came away with the victory over the latter by a 3-1 score.

“Early in the season you'll take any win,” coach Matthew Miller said. “We felt that we had some chances that we would love to see go in the net. But it’s the first game of the season, we were still feeling each other out, getting our lines back together and the bounces don't always go our way. 

“Our defense was very sound, our goaltender was very good and we were able to just roll our forward lines because every line was contributing. You always want more pucks in the back of the net, but the right number went in and everybody worked hard and contributed.”

Before the game started, both former Ken/GI/Port coach Jeff Orlowski and Laura Pavone (daughter of girls federation founding member Bill Pavone) dropped the puck during a ceremonial opening faceoff. Then the game began, and Ken/GI/Port showed why they reached last year’s state championship.

Alexa Ostertag opened the scoring few minutes into the first period and Savannah Samplinski made it 2-0 after cashing in on a rebound shortly afterwards. Mackenzie Kumrow lit the lamp early in the second period to increase the team’s lead to 3-0, and while Georgia Mango got CASH on the board less than a minute later it wouldn’t be enough to mount a comeback.

Miller noted that his team’s new home is a perfect fit.

“I grew up in the area and I worked at Brighton for a long time, so I've been in these rinks for 34 years and it's so nice to have insulation and it’s something to be proud of in the Town of Tonawanda,” Miller said. “Instead of being like, ‘Oh, come to our refrigerator, it's colder than it is outside sometimes’, the lighting is great. There's plenty of seating, it's warm, the locker rooms are bigger and the ice surface is bigger. “It's a great rink, and we loved breaking it in with a nice win.”

However, the game marks just one small step for Ken/GI/Port. Having won eight sectional titles in their history and coming up just one win shy of a state title a year ago, Miller knows that to get back there and finish the job will require even more hard work than that of last year.

“Our road back to states starts today with this first game and every game people are going to be coming hard after us because we've had a lot of success the last three years in a row and all the years before that,” Miller said. “We're one-for-one so we did everything we could today, but every game we play because of our success teams are going to be ramping up for us. 

“We've got a target on our back and we know that, so it's going to be a hard season but we hope that we can get to the sectional championship game, get out of the section and that will get us ready for some of these teams around the state. We're going to be playing everybody's best every night. We hope to be back there, but we’ve got to play out the season first.”

Photo Gallery by Shawn Turri/WNYAthletics