By Warren Kozireski —
Section III four-time defending champion West Genesee overcame three one-goal deficits by scoring four of the last five goals of the game to defeat Section VI titlist Orchard Park 6-4 in the regional round of the New York high school hockey playoffs.
Orchard Park opened the scoring with the only goal of the first period as senior forward Jack Ciano converted a feed from classmate Justin Relosky at 14:34.
West Genesee tied the game on the power play in the second period as freshman Matthew Schneid banged home a lose puck at the side of the cage at 2:33 after Jacob Pensabene’s shot from the point hit the crossbar.
The Quakers retook the lead at 8:53 of the second when Ciano shot the puck over the left shoulder of the goaltender. But the Wildcats rebounded again on the power play as sophomore Nick Meluni redirected a shot from Carson Berg at 12:53 to tie the game 2-2.
35 second later, Orchard Park jumped back in front on a Brady Ciano goal but, 59 second later, the Wildcats responded as senior Christian Ball scored on his backhand converting a two-on-one break to tie the game 3-3.
West Genesee took their first lead of the game on the first shift of the third period as senior Jonah Vormwald scored with an assist from Ball. They made it 5-3 at 2:47 when Ball converted a two-on-one break one-timing a pass from Vormwald.
“We’re a defense-first team and it led to some transition goals late in the game,” Vormwald said. “We knew they were going to come out hard; they’re a fast team good in transition.”
Orchard Park senior Tyler Buchheit scored at 8:42 to close to within one, but West Genesee’s Meluni raced down the left wing and got the puck just under the crossbar at 13:48.
Orchard Park pulled their goaltender and went on the3 power play for the final 1:58 of the game but could not convert.
“We were just hoping to be in the game in the third period and fortunately we were,” West Genesee 31-year head coach Frank Colabufo said. “We’re happy to be coming back next weekend.
“There’s a lot of grit in that locker room, there’s a lot of character kids in there and I knew they weren’t going to quit, but I wasn’t sure that we were going to be able to break through. However they did it, they did it and we’re gong to be coming back in a week.”
West Genesee now advances to the Final Four for the 11th time in program history back at Buffalo’s Harborcenter next weekend trying to win their fifth New York State championship.
(Photo by Koz, NY Hockey OnLine)
