Quarterfinals at Northtown Center Prove Memorable

TROJANS TRAMPLE LANCERS

The West Seneca East Trojans punched their ticket to the Section VI semifinals on Sunday by defeating the Lew-Port Lancers 6-2.

Coming into the contest, the Trojans knew they would have their hands full with the Lancers. So to find a way to combat them – and deal with the emotions of the postseason – coach Phil Prynn decided to keep his players fresh by giving them short ice times.

“We knew that Lew-Port was coming in feeling pretty confident in themselves after beating Hamburg,” Prynn said. “A confident team, especially in the playoffs, is a dangerous team. They have some dangerous players, and we felt confident that our guys could match up with them, so we rolled all of our lines, kept our shifts short and just had everyone play hard for 45 minutes.

“The tough thing is, if we try to match up with them, they really liked to play just two lines, so then it shortens our bench. I told the guys, make sure you know when their best players are on the ice. We liked our chances of being able to play great team defense and it definitely worked out for us.”

The Trojans struck first on a goal by Connor Mentel – his first of two on the day – slightly after the opening puck drop, but Jack Evert tied the game shortly thereafter. Goals by Tyler Arndt and Mentel increased the Trojans’ lead to 3-1, and seemingly gave the team a small cushion going into the third period. However, Jake Peters cut the lead down to one score with less than two minutes to go.

Just 17 seconds later, Arndt answered back with his second tally of the game, and Josh Jensen and Jacob Maurino each put the final nails in the coffin with insurance goals late in the period.

With the win, the Trojans are headed to the semifinals for a second straight year, but the Trojans aren’t satisfied. Reaching the finals would be a nice feather in the team’s cap, according to Prynn.

“This is a spot anyone would like to be in,” Prynn said. “That’s our goal – to win Section VI. We’ve just got to keep our heads down and keep grinding, because if we do, good things will come.”

FLAMES VANQUISH VIKINGS

A long-accepted narrative in hockey is that in the postseason, the goals that win games aren’t pretty, highlight reel-type goals, but ones that come via rebounds, crashing creases and pure effort.

The Williamsville East Flames have certainly subscribed to that theory. They knew, going into their eventual win over the Grand Island Vikings, that they needed to set a tone.

Mission accomplished, according to coach Mike Torrillo.

“I thought our kids played great today,” Torrillo said. “I loved our effort, and our seniors really stepped up. The way they did it was by going hard to the net, getting pucks on the net and not being too fancy. When you throw it at the net, you come away with goals like that.

“Both of Grand Island’s goals were the same way. That’s the way playoff hockey is played at any level – the highlight goals are nice to look at, but the dirty ones are ones that win games.”

Forward Sam Pastore agreed.

“It was just 100 percent effort out there from everyone,” Pastore said. “We just kept going to the net all day, and that kind of hard work got us rewarded with a win.”

Parker Morrow opened the scoring for the Vikings, but it was all they could muster in the early going as Pastore, Eric Metz, Nick LaFornara (twice) and Ryan Mitchell all pumped home goals – most of them through sheer determination and will.

Jake Neff had the Vikings’ second goal.

The Vikings were the second seed in Division II and the Flames seventh, so the Flames’ victory does qualify as an upset. But Torrillo knew that more challenges lay ahead for his team in the semifinal round.

“Division II is up for grabs now,” Torrillo said. “It’s not going to get any easier. Any one of eight or nine teams can win this thing. It’s all about who gets hot at the right time, and hopefully we can keep this thing going.”

INDIANS BEAT BLUE DEVILS

Being down doesn’t necessarily mean you’re out.

The West Seneca West Indians discovered this on Sunday as they found themselves in a deficit twice against the Kenmore West Blue Devils. Neither time did they panic or quit, however, as they rallied to eliminate the Blue Devils by a 5-2 score.

“We knew it was going to be tough going against Ken West because both times we played against them in the regular season, the final scores were each by one goal,” coach Kevin Rozo said. “They went up on us early, but we knew that if we kept our noses to the grindstone that things would be ok.”

It was evident early on that no matter what the Blue Devils would try to do to hold them down, their efforts would be futile. Cameron Crosier’s first goal led to an answer by Zach Lembke, and Crosier’s second notch was also foiled, this time by Jason Wojciechowski.

One minute after tying the score at two, Wojciechowski struck again, this time giving the Indians a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Parker Leemer and Chase Chodkowski would also cash in during the third period to seal the deal for the Indians.

“Right around the time of the third goal, that’s when I felt like things were coming together for us and were turning in our favor,” Rozo said. “We were burying loose pucks and paying the price to get to dirty areas around the net. That’s a great sign of heart by our kids.”

The Indians are loaded with seniors, and the majority of the roster understands that if they want to advance beyond the upcoming semifinal, they will need to leave everything on the ice.

“It’s pretty tough when you get towards the end of the season because you know it’s one step closer to not being able to play with some of your friends again,” Leemer said. “You’ve got to give everything you’ve got in every game, or else it’s over. We’ll just keep doing it from here on out.”

PANTHERS POUND BULLDOGS

The Sweet Home Panthers entered Sunday night’s tilt with Kenmore East with a clear objective – shut down the high-flying Bulldogs.

Not only did they accomplish just that by shutting them out 3-0 – chalking it up to a good game plan and solid fundamentals – but they also endured a physical, chippy game in which the atmosphere was akin to that of a Stanley Cup playoff game.

“It’s a pretty solid win for us, and that’s a credit to our goaltending and defensive play,” coach Dave Gerspach said. “It was one of those games where we each had something to prove, and it showed. When it’s win or go home, you’re bound to have a few skirmishes out there, but we stayed focused on what was ahead.”

Andrew Czyz was one of those players who contributed the most to the win. His positioning and ability to take away time and space from opposing forwards was excellent, according to Gerspach.

“We didn’t really want to give Ken East much room to breathe out there,” Czyz said. “We pretty much shut them down, and I thought we were outstanding in our own zone tonight.”

Kyle Neudorf opened the scoring in the first period, Eric Abbate recorded a pair of goals – both on breakaways – and that was all the offense they needed. Michael Lisman backstopped his team with a 25-save shutout and the rest of the Panthers played impeccable defense along the way.

“The beauty of this team is we’ve got guys contributing from seniors to freshmen,” Gerspach said. “It’s really a credit to our team and how we’ve paid attention to and executed game plans this year. I think if we keep doing that, the sky’s the limit for us.”