WNY Fed Hockey: HarborCenter hosts trio of rivalry games

Canisius tops Joe’s 4-2

The Crusaders have extended their unbeaten streak to four games (3-0-1) after an impressive 4-2 win over their arch rivals St. Joe’s at the HarbrCenter. Matt Kreuzer scored a power play goal in the dying moments of the second period to knot the game at 2 goals a side.  Team captain Cole Beiter scored his second goal of the game just 1:35 into the third period to give Canisius a 3-2 lead. Logan Gare added the fourth and final goal to put the game away.

Ethan Louisos and Patrick Gilbert scored for the Marauders. Alex Sabuda picked up the win in goal for Canisius. The Crusaders are back in action Saturday against another top tier opponent in Williamsville North. St. Joe’s (6-3-1), losers of two straight face the Spartans Friday.

Indians knock off Trojans

In another marquee match-up at HarborCenter the undefeated West Seneca East Trojans lost to their cross town rival West Seneca West 4-2. Noah Sobczyk was simply sensational in goal for the Indians making 38 stops including a dozen glove saves. “The guys did a really good job of letting me see the shots,” the junior netminder said. “The whole team played great, it was a total team effort today.”

Parker Leemer scored the go ahead goal in the third period to make it a 3-2 hockey game. His shot from just above the left face-off circle beat WSE goalie Jagger Maving glove side. “They have one of the best goalies if not the best goalie in the league,” Leemer said after the win. “That goal was huge for us, we felt we had the momentum going already so when we took the lead we knew we could finish strong and win.”

In order to pull off the upset the Indians needed to rally from a two-goal deficit. Down 2-0 in the second period defenseman Jacob Fort began the WSW comeback with a power play goal with just 1:32 left. Chase Chodkowski continued the WSW rally with another Indians power play goal early in the third. Michael Flury scored with 3:26 left in the game to help seal the win for WSW.

The Indians, talented as they may be had been a team known more for it’s undisciplined play than it’s skill. But Monday, WSW played a full three periods. Despite being down 2-1 heading into the third period, the Indians played with poise and above the nonsense that has historically hurt them in years past. The win should give them some much needed self-assurance that they can play with anyone.

“Every team gets up for us and especially West,” WSE head coach Phil Prynn said. “We have to get up for them too. There is a lot of pressure with being an undefeated team. In some respect it’s a sense of relief to lose. You hate to lose, you don’t ever want to lose these rivalry games.”

Drew Werner a senior captain believes the loss is something that will make the team stronger. “They’re a good team, we popped a few in early and then they started scoring and we couldn’t match.” Werner was stopped on a number of prime chances and delivered what might have been the best open ice hit of the game. “There were some things we needed to do better in that game,” Damond Flynn said after. “We need to focus and come out next game ready to go, this is a wake up call.”

The Trojans will face Grand Island Friday while the Indians next opponent is Kenmore East on Sunday.

Green leads Blue Devils over Bulldogs

Kenmore West defenseman Owen Green scored twice in a 3-2 win over Kenmore East in the third and final Fed hockey game at the HarborCenter Monday. Chris Cairns turned back 15 shots for the victory.

Freshman Dom Cassillo scored both goals for Kenmore East. His first goal, which tied the game at one, was scored on a breakaway while the Bulldogs were playing short-handed. Cassillo leads Ken East with five goals.

Cam Crozier scored Ken West’s third goal with just over three minutes left in regulation. The Blue Devils were missing leading scorer Ethan Yotter who was dealing with a high fever. Ken West will play Starpoint Friday in a highly anticipated rematch.

“You always have to be ready for these rivalry games,” Ken West coach Rob Roszak said after the win. “This was a much closer game than we wanted it to be. With rivalries anything can happen. We had the scrimmage thing this past Saturday and we did a lot of nice things in that one, I thought we controlled the game. Today was back and forth.”

“I thought our guys played well,” Bulldogs coach Kyle Pray said. “There was a couple bounces that didn’t go our way, one led to that third goal we gave up so we have to play better in our zone.”

Around the League

Division I

–          Will North continues their winning ways defeating Lancaster 6-3. The Spartans took a 4-1 lead into the third period. Lancaster led 1-0 early with a goal by Breyden Dixon but it was all North after that. Brett Sardinia had two goals and an assist to lead Will North to an 8-0-2 record. Andrew Bruno had three helpers.

–          Niagara Wheatfield (8-1-1) pitched a shutout versus Frontier 7-0 to remain tied with Williamsville North in Division I standings. Dylan Woods made 21 saves to earn the shutout victory for the Falcons. Seven different players scored goals for Niagara Wheatfield.

Division II

–          Williamsville East (3-3-1) scored the go ahead goal in the final minute of play versus Hamburg in a Division II showdown at the Northtown Center in Amherst. Ryan Mitchell, a junior defenseman blasted a shot from the point that found the back of the Bulldogs net to give the Flames a 3-2 win.

Hamburg (2-6-0) led 2-0 after the first period.

Division III

–          A pair of sophomore’s led Sweet Home to their 10th win of the season. Goaltender Ian Burgess picked up his first win recording a shutout in a 14-0 Panthers rout of Niagara Falls. Kyle Neudorf also a sophomore scored four goals and had a helper in the win.

Joe Torillo had three goals while Tyler Edholm, Andy Czyz and Colin Regian each chipped in a couple. Cole Feldman also scored for Sweet Home.

–          St. Francis (8-0-1) is on fire. The Red Raiders took down Lockport (1-6-1) 5-0 today at the Cornerstone Arena. Vinny Vaccaro earned his second shutout of the season and improves his record to 5-0 with a 1.20 goals against average.

John Kubiak, Justin Kirst, Ben Kyte, Andrew Scanzuso and Jack Kernitz were the St. Francis goal scorers.

–          North Tonawanda’s Jackson Burns scored the game winning goal in a 3-2 win against Amherst. Noah Horn scored twice and assisted on Burns game winner for the Lumberjacks. NT improves to 4-3-1 while Amherst falls to 3-5-0.