Recap: Thursday Night is Fed Night

By Francis Boeck fboeck@fromthe300level.com Photo: Neil Stafford

The Northtown Center had one last big night of Fed hockey on the 2016 calendar year on Thursday night. There were five (four boys and one girls) Federation High School Hockey games played on two rinks all under one roof.

Girls Hockey: Williamsville 5, Amherst/Sweet Home/Clarence (CASH) 2

Williamsville (9-0-1) stays unbeaten and well atop the Girls Fed standings with a 5-2 over Amherst/Sweet Home/Clarence (5-5). Williamsville captain Leah Czerwinski opened up the scoring less than a minute in the game. Laura Kaplan scored off a pass from Holly Schmelzer a few minutes later for Williamsville. In the final minute of the period, CASH got on the board and picked up some momentum as league points leader Julia Mings found teammate Emma Faso.

The momentum ended when Jenna Cavalieri and Sam Ingham found Erin Rolland to give Williamsville back the two-goal lead in the second period and they carried on from there.

Czerwinski had two goals. Amanda Gaffney had two assists for Williamsville. Schmelzer scored the final Williamsville goal on the power play.

“I think it was a pretty good game”, CASH Head Coach Nicola Adimey said. “We kept up with them. We had a couple rebounds we just couldn’t convert.”

“(CASH) is the leading scoring team in the Federation, they are so dangerous offensively” Williamsville Head Coach Rick Hopkins said. “Our defense did a good job of taking rebounds away and Mia (Wendell) did a good job in net.” Amanda Gaffney made it clear that Williamsville wasn’t going to take their opponent lightly saying, “we had to come out hard because we knew they were a good team with some of the biggest scorers in the league.”

Next: Williamsville hosts Monsignor Martin this afternoon at the Northtown Center at 4pm. CASH will be back in action on Jan. 2 when they play Orchard Park/Frontier/Lake Shore at Riverworks at 4:30pm.

Boys Hockey: Sweet Home 3, St. Francis 2

The St. Francis Red Raiders (3-3) were up 2-0 with eight minutes to go in the second period, but Sweet Home (5-2) came back and won the game with less than 30 seconds left in the third.

Josh Dresser score the first goal of the game with under a minute left in the first period to give St. Francis the lead. John Kubiak scored the second Red Raider goal.

Tyler Edholm scored unassisted to put Sweet Home on the board. 38 seconds later, Colin Regian found the back of the net for the Panthers. It looked as if the game was headed to overtime until Matthew Gademske was free in front of the net and put one past the Red Raider goalie with 26 seconds left in the game.

Gademske also assisted on the second goal. Jeff Czyz had two assists.

Sweet Home had zero penalties in the entire game.

“(Gademske) is our heart and soul. He works 110 percent and means a lot to everyone”, Sweet Home Head Coach Dave Gerspach said. “It was nice to see him get his first goal of the year.”

“There’s no quit ever, we’re still backing and playing for each other”, Gademske said after the game.

Gerspach was incredibly proud of the way his team played saying, “that was our best game all year, we battled back hard.”

Next: Sweet Home will face Kenmore West on Thursday, 7pm at the Northtown Center. St. Francis will play North Tonawanda at the HarborCenter on Jan. 2 at 6:30pm.

Boys Hockey: St. Joe’s 5, Williamsville North 1 By far the most anticipated game of the night filled up the stands at the feature rink. But unfortunately for some in attendance the game didn’t quite live up to the hype, as the St. Joe ‘s Marauders (3-1-1) handled the Williamsville North Spartans (4-2).

After a few minutes of hard hitting into the boards, Luke Pierce found the back of the net to give Joe’s the 1-0 lead. Before the period was over the Marauders scored two more times to give themselves a 3-0 lead at the intermission.

The Spartans got on the board in the second as Brett Sardina put in a rebound off a Josh Surowiec shot from the point while on the power play. The goal gave Will North some momentum as the game headed to the third period.

However, a few minutes into the third Jimmy Grable found David Matthew for the Marauders’ forth goal, all but ending a Will North comeback.

Jeremy Ienco had a goal and an assist and Nathan Berke had three assists in the win.

“We didn’t play the way were capable of playing”, Williamsville North Head Coach Bob Rosen said. “We cheated the game a little bit and when you do that it comes back to haunt you.”

“We were all psyched but a little nervous at the same time because of all the people coming to watch”, Berke said. “We just wanted to get a strong first start and that’s what we did.” “Things went our way”, St. Joe’s Head Coach Rich Crozier said. “I’m really proud of what our guys did in front of the former players home from college.”

Next: St. Joe’s will be back in Fed action on Jan. 5 when they face Clarence, 8:30pm at the Northtown Center. Will North will face Frontier on Jan. 8 at Buff State at 3pm.

Boys Hockey: Orchard Park 3, Clarence 1

The Red Devils (2-2-1) lead 1-0 at the end of the first period, but a three-goal period from the Orchard Park (5-1-1) propelled the Quakers to their third straight win.

Nick Lunetta found Richy Felber for Clarence’s first goal a three and a half minutes into the game.

The second period got off to a quick start as Zach Biasillo scored just 37 seconds in. OP took the lead as Luke MacLeod and Tyler Bienias found Ryan Niles in front of the net. Biasillo scored his second goal of the game off a pass from Marshall Cappelli.

“We’ve been waiting for (Biasillo) to breakout and take over”, Orchard Park Head Coach Josh Dannecker said. “His speed was on display tonight.”

Clarence had two power play opportunities in the third period but had trouble just getting pucks to the net. Bienias had two assists in the game.

“I thought we skated very well, even though we are in Division 2 we have to play with everyone in Division 1”, Clarence Head Coach Rich Brooks said. “We gave them a couple breakaways and they cashed in.”

“We have some confidence now that were on a winning streak we want to keep the momentum going”, Biasillo said.

Next: OP hosts Canisius on Dec. 30 at Leisure Rink at 7:30pm. Clarence will face St. Joe’s on Jan. 5 at the Northtown Center at 8:30pm.

Boys Hockey: West Seneca East 4, Amherst 1

Coming into tonight West Seneca East and Grand Island were tied for the most power play goals scored so far, this season. On Thursday night, the West Seneca East Trojans (4-1) showed why they have that spot as they beat the Amherst Tigers (1-3-0-1).

Sophomore Tyler Arndt scored first in the game off a pass from Damond Flynn. Then defenseman Josh Maloney found the back of the net. Amherst responded back as Alex Braden scored to bring the Tigers within one.

In the third period, the Tigers had to learn the hard way that taking penalties against West Seneca East is dangerous. The Trojans had a power play to start the period and converted as Danny Flynn scored. Later, Amherst was in the box again and Dominic Khoury scored for West Seneca East.

“We told the kids before the game that if we got into penalty trouble that their power play may be one of the best around. They scored a couple goals on it and that was the difference.” Amherst Head Coach James Ryan said.

“We were working well and passing the puck more”, Khoury said.

“A W is a W, I’ll take it but we have to be better than that to beat teams like West Seneca West and Grand Island” West Seneca East Head Coach Phil Prynn said.

Next: Both teams will be back in action on Jan. 5 at the Northtown Center. West Seneca East will play Sweet Home at 7pm. Amherst will face West Seneca West at 9pm.

*Next refers to the team’s next Federation game, some teams may travel or play in tournaments during the break