Story and Photos by Janet Schultz, NYHOL
Let’s start by answering the question, where does everyone stand? Well, believe it or not, that still can’t be totally answered. The St. Mary’s of Lancaster versus Monsignor Martin game scheduled for Monday, January 31 has been postponed until Thursday, February 3 (now at North Buffalo at 4:30 pm) due to Covid Protocols. So with that said the scenario is Williamsville is currently in First Place in the Federation and Section VI. However a regulation or overtime win for Monsignor Martin will give them the Federation Cup. A tie or win for St. Mary’s gives Williamsville the Federation Cup. However Williamsville is the Number One Seed in Section VI play.
So as of January 29 in Section VI play Williamsville is #1 with 36 points; #2 is Kenmore/Grand Island 35.5 points; #3 Frontier/Lancaster/Orchard Park, 33 points; #4 Niagara County, 31 points; followed by Clarence/Amherst/Sweet Home, 16 points; Hamburg/Eden/West Seneca, 12/5 points and Lancaster/Iroquois/Depew at 9.5 points.
With the seeding in place, the Section VI Quarterfinals will be played Tuesday, February 1 beginning at 4:30 p.m. at Northtowns Arena. #7 LID will faceoff against #2 KGI in the first game followed by #6 HEWS vs #3 Niagara County at 6 p.m. and #5 CASH vs #4 FLOP at 7:30 p.m.
Semi-finals will be played Thursday, February 3 with #4 playing #1 Williamsville and #3 playing #2. Seeding the result of the Quarterfinals.
The Championship game will be played February 7 at 8 p.m. at Cornerstone Arena, following the Private School Championship.
St. Mary’s of Lancaster is last in the League, presenting with 2.5 points. In the League Overall Monsignor Martin currently sits in third with 34 points. St. Mary’s and Monsignor Martin will play a Private School Championship on February 7 at 6 p.m. at Cornerstone Arena, Lockport.
For those new to the League, in previous years we had a Section VI playoff and an overall League Playoff so Monsignor Martin could vie for a championship. With adding another private school, St. Mary’s of Lancaster, ther is no need to have an overall league championship game, just added a private school championship. Private schools are not included in NYSPHSAA State Championships.
Now how did we do this week?
St. Mary’s headed to Northtown to play Williamsville and it was Williamsville all the way with a 8-0 shutout. Williamsville Goalie Katherine Kelley had her first career shutout making 12 saves on 12 shots. Aizah-Roze Thompson logged in the first and winning goal, then added a second goal and an assist that evening. Vanessa Willick had two goals and an assist; Alexandra Hennessy dropped in two goals, one unassisted and Annabelle Berke had a goal. Assists came from Anna Meyer (2), Scarlet Canna (2), Alena Lombardo (2) and Besancon. St. Mary’s Avery Hall faced 48 shots on goal.
After this game Willick joined the Career Scoring Leaders with 91 points, passing Carleigh Rondeau. Thompson also set history by topping the Season Leader Board with 20 goals, 7 assists in 15 games.
NiCO beat FLOP 4-2 with Niagara’s Madison Mallone having the game-winner, plus an empty net goal for the win. Madelyn Jagow andAbby Zimmerman also scored. Abby Lawrence, Marina Mansfield, Kayla Persinger, Paige Spatorico had assists. In goal Mariela Mulready stopped 21 of 23 shots. For FLOP it was Maya Griffin with both goals, both on the powerplay. She was assisted by Emily Patton (2), Samantha Torgerson and Kathleen Douhtery. Kerrigan McCarthy stopped 22/25.
CASH handed LID a 2-0 shutout and with that CASH was the first team to secure a seed in the playoffs at #5. Allison Greene scored both goals for CASH, assisted by Isabella Zivis and Jane Ablove on the first and she was unassisted on the second. Melissa MacLeod had the shutout after stopping all 28 sog. Abrie Ianucci faced 26 sog for LID.
Monsignor Martin and FLOP headed over to Cornerstone for a rescheduled game. It was a 2-0 shutout for MonMar. The game opened with a scoreless first period and then Cam Brownschidle dropped in a powerplay goal in the second, ending that period 1-0. Mia Boyd scored an unassisted goal at 6:29 and the game ended 2-0. Sophia Will was in the net for MonMar and McCarthy for FLOP.
On Tuesday night it was Williamsville 8 over LID 4. Thompson had two goals and an assist that evening and Vanessa Willick had the game-winner, assisted by Sophia DePrima. Other goals were scored by Molly Braunscheidel, assisted by Canna; DePrima an unassisted goal and O’Donnell, assisted by DePrima and Hennessy. Other assists that evening were from Victoria Burget and Lauren Kuligowski. Kelley stopped 16/20. For LID scoring were Haylie Petyk, unassisted; Sydney Radecki, 2 goals with assists coming from Kayla Buszkowski (2), Hailey Kenyon and Brynna Cafferty. Stopping 29 of 37 sog was Ianucci.
NiCo and KGI pulled an overtime game with KGI coming up with the win on a goal by Isabelle Bourgeault unassisted by 2:36 of overtime. Also scoring for KGI was Isabella Jayme with two goals, assisted both times by Madison Flory. Emiliana Cassillo also assisted on one goal by Jayme. Carolyn Bourgeault stopped d21 of 23 sog. For NiCo it was Lawrence with an unassisted powerplay goal and the second shot in by Persinger, assisted by Natalie Ponzi. Goaltending duties were split between Mulready and Ruest. Ruest taking the L with 19/22 and Mulready two for two.
HEWS upset St. Marys of Lancaster 10-0 on HEWS’ Senior Night. E. O’Brien had the game-winner assisted by sister K O’Brien and Supples. Andzel scored four goals, with other goals coming from K Barrett, K. O’Brien, O’Donnell, Supples and Mruk. Assists attributed to K O’Brien, Supples, K. Barrett, E O’Brien and Mruk. In goal Scheid got the shutout stopping 15. Avery Hall stopped 29 of 39 sog.
HEWS had the last strike with a goal by O’Donnell with 9.5 seconds left in the game against MonMar on Thursday night. The first goal of the night came quickly also at 13 seconds by Mia Boyd, celebrating Senior Night! She was assisted by fellow Seniors Brownschidle and Russo. The first remained 1-0 and in the second period Franke put in the final goal for MonMar and that period ended 2-0. With the O’Donnell hit, MonMar missed the shutout but took the 2-1 win into the record books as they try to move into #1 in the Federation. Tending goal for HEWS was Schneid making 37/39.
KGI traveled to FLOP for another needed victory for both teams. It ends with KGI beating FLOP 2-1 and securing #2 seed. Cassillo scores on the powerplay, assisted by Flory and Leggett and the Flory scores, assisted by Jaymne and I Bourgeault. C Bourgeault takes the win making 30 saves on 31 shots. Doughtery gets the lone goal for FLOP, assisted by Dalton and Fitzery. McCarthy stopped 34/36. This was the second win ever for KGI at the Nike site since they did so in a 2-0 shutout in 2013.
Williamsville handed CASH a 2-0 shutout, securing Williamsville’s current lead in the standings. Thompson and Willick gave the team it’s win, assists from Braunscheidel for Thompson, and unassisted for Willick. Kelley had the 17/17 shutout and in goal for CASH it was Paige making 26 of 28.
NiCo and LID faced off at Holiday with NiCo taking a 2-0 shutout victory and the first shutout for Ruest in her varsity career. She stopped all 27 shots. Persinger had both goals, assisted by Zimmerman twice, Berube and Lawrence. Irzycki stopped 25/27 shots for LID.
NiCo had another game to make up and did so Friday night at Northtowns against St. Marys. It was a 6-1 victory for Niagara County. Scoring goals were Zimmerman, Samantha Draper, Latini, Ponzi, Zimmerman, Jagow; assisting Ponzi, Berube, O’Connor, Mansfield, Latini, Persinger and Terranova. Mulready made 8/9 saves for the win. Draper had the game-winning goal. Danielle Cottrell scored for St. Mary’s, assisted by Teddie Osinski and Kirsten Domagola. Hall faced 34 shots, made 28.
With one regular season game to go, St. Marys of Lancaster will face off at North Buffalo against MonMar on February 3 at 4:30 p.m. at North Buffalo. This will be St. Marys Senior Night.
Looking at the League Leader Board its Thompson with 23 goals/9 assists for 32 points followed by Willick with 14/11; Persinger 9/16; Brownschidle 14/10; Greene 19/4 and Jayme 14/9.
K. Kelley has the most minutes in goal with 723.25 and a .909 save%; Will and C Bourgeault each have 4 shutouts and Will has the best save % at .953.
The Quarterfinals and Semi-finals are open to spectators at no charge and will be held at Northtowns Arena. Masking is still required, as I write this. The Championship games at Cornerstone will have an admission fee, which we believe is $10/person.
The semi-finals and Championship games will be streamed by WNY Athletics but the Quarters will not. They will be on the NFHS Network behind a paywall. We will post links on our Facebook page as they become available.
Come out and support girls varsity ice hockey!
This Album is from photos taken at this week’s games that Janet attended. All photos are available by contacting [email protected]. This are low resolution so will not print clearly if you try and download them. All photos copyright protected by NYHOL, Janet Schultz photographer©
