BY RANDY SCHULTZ —
AMHERST, NY – With a three-goal outburst in the first period, Frontier/Lakeshore/Orchard Park (FLOP) hung on to defeat Lancaster/Iroquois/Depew (LID), 4-2, to win their third straight Girls Ice Hockey Federation Championship Friday night at the Northtown Center at Amherst. FLOP is the first team in the Girls Hockey Federation history to win three consecutive titles.
FLOP opened the scoring at the 4:11 mark of the first period when Keenan Shanahan (Orchard Park) scored on the power play to give her team a 1-0 lead. Jessica Peters (Orchard Park) and Brooke Becker (Orchard Park) assisted.
FLOP increased their lead to 2-0 a little over three minutes later when Jenna Dickson (Frontier) scored another power play goal at 7:22. Mary Kromer (Lake Shore) and Shanahan assisted.
The game looked like it might become a blowout when FLOP tallied their third goal of the period when Gabby Messing (Frontier) at 12:37. Kromer and Becker got the assists.
But LID was not about to give up. With the clock ticking down in the opening stanza, Morganne Dee (Lancaster) scored on the power play with just :24 remaining on the clock to cut FLOP’s lead to 3-1. Jersey Phillips (Depew) and Anna Pitz (Iroquois) assisted.
Several penalties were called in the opening period which resulted in three power play goals. LID outshot FLOP for the period 13-11.
While penalties still abounded with both teams in the second period, only one goal was scored. LID scored on a power play when Morgan Zaccaraine’s (Lancaster) shot went in the net at the 12:47 mark to cut FLOP’s lead to 3-2. Summer Cole (Lancaster) and Amanda Cole (Depew) got the assists.
Shot on goal were even for the period with each team recording 10.
Early in the third period Becker scored for FLOP with an unassisted goal to give FLOP a 4-2 lead at the 2:05 mark. Despite several great scoring chances for LID, FLOP hung to win the game.
FLOP outshot LID in the third period, 10-9. For the game LID outshot FLOP 32-31.
The goaltending was outstanding for both teams. Maggie Spyche (Orchard Park) made several key saves in the game for FLOP. Dylan Gorski (Iroquois) had several key stops in goal to keep LID in the game.
GAME NOTES: This was LID’s second appearance in a Fed Championship game, with the first coming in 2014…FLOP is the 2017 and 2018 Section VI and Fed Champs…FLOP was the first Section VI team to become NYSPHSAA State Champions in 2018.
