Trojans Down Ken-West

By Dave Ricci

Tyler Arndt was looking to get back on track.

Arndt readily admits that the last few games had been a bit of a struggle and he was looking for that moment when he could pull it together and help his team. He found it.

Tyler Arndt had two goals as Division III West Seneca East scored a 4-1 win over Division IV Kenmore West in a WNY Varsity Ice Hockey Federation game that was played on the KeyBank Rink at HarborCenter on Monday night. “It was a big relief,” Arndt said. “I was doing nothing the past couple of games. I couldn’t score. I couldn’t find the back of the net. It was really big tonight that I got to hit the back of the net twice. I feel like one comes, they all come. Hopefully I can start getting more.”

The Blue Devils, who entered the game as the division leaders in IV, struck first when Tim Seyfang scored on the power play at the 7:17 mark of the first period. Michael Barker and Adam Michael Pray got the assists on the Seyfang goal. Ken-West maintained pressure throughout the first and second periods, as they outshot the Trojans 12-2 in the middle frame, but they couldn’t push another puck past West Seneca East goalie Jagger Maving who stopped 19 of the 20 shots he faced.

Meanwhile, though they only had two shots on net, West Seneca East made them count as Arndt’s first tally of the game came on the power play, tying the score at 1-1. Looking to break out of his mini-slump, Arndt confessed that he was a little upset when it was originally announced that Danny Flynn had scored the goal.

“I got a little mad at first,” Arndt said with a laugh. “I knew they were gonna fix it because I told coach.”

Flynn (two assists) and Connor Mentel would extend the Trojan lead to 3-1 on two power play goals as they took full advantage of the Blue Devils mental breakdowns that led to the penalties.

“Our power play is on some kind of magical role. We went 3-for-5 today,” said West Seneca East coach Phil Prynn.

“We went 4-for-7 the other night. We work on it a lot. They have free reign to be creative. It’s really working for us right now. So if we use our feet and we draw them into penalties it puts us at a really big advantage.” Prynn said that very strong fore-checking by the Blue Devils kept them hemmed into their own and prevented the Trojans from breaking out.

“Credit to them,” he said. “They were ready to play us and they gave us everything they had.” Tied 1-1 as they went into intermission, Prynn told his players that he trusted their conditioning and that if they stuck to the things that have proven to work, like moving their feet, they could take control of this game.

“It started off in the locker room,” Arndt said. “Coach said go into the third period, don’t put our heads down. He told us just keep playing. Power play came our way and we didn’t argue back at anything. And we executed on our power plays….I feel like our best play is in the third period because we all come together.”

For the Blue Devils the game was a frustrating microcosm of their season to date. While most teams experience the normal ebbs and flows from game to game, the Blue Devils continue to struggle with those ups and downs in every game. Sluggish warm ups have turned into great starts. Great starts have slipped away late in the game. This game being an example of the latter, as they owned the first two periods, but the wheels fell off in the third as the Trojans out shot Ken-West, 18-5. The bigger concern would have to be the way players emotions unraveled as one mental breakdown led to another.

“There hasn’t been too many games this year where we’ve had to overcome adversity to come back and win a game,” said Ken West coach Rob Roszak. “Tonight was one of those things, we get down 2-1, they scored on a power play. OK, still, for the first two periods I thought we were the better team for some moments. At that point you can’t feel sorry for yourself. You have to pick yourself up. You’ve got to go out there and be the team that you (know) you can be.”

Arndt capped off the scoring in the third period.

The Trojan PK has also been hot as they have killed off 63 of the last 63 shorthanded situations they have been in. Thirty of which were in a row.