Story and Photos by Janet Schultz©
The WNYGVIH Federation Quarterfinals are in the books. It will be Niagara County facing off with Williamsville facing KENGIL and HEWS playing Niagara County in the Semi-Finals on Thursday (Feb. 9) at Northtown.
The Quarterfinals provided all the hockey action you could ask for including a double overtime, a “no goal” call, a few penalties, acrobatic saves and hard shots.
First up was 7th seed CASH taking on 2nd seed Niagara County. Niagara County’s Abby Zimmerman opened the scoring with an unassisted goal in the first period, ending that period 1-0 in favor of NiCo. NiCo then dumped in three goals in the second period with Marina Mansfield, Gabby Puff and Madison Mallone scoring. Mansfield scored on the powerplay and Puff had the game-winner. CASH worked hard in the third period and put in two goals, both scored unassisted by Jenny Wild. For Niagara County is was Mariela Mulready stopping 23 of 25 sog and for CASH, Melissa MacLeod made 27 saves on 31 shots. NiCO wins 4-2 and moves on.
FFLOP and HEWS seemed evenly matched coming into the second game. HEWS gets on the board with 37.5 seconds left in the first period with a goal by Riley Andzel, assisted by Tori Hart.
Period ends 1-0 in favor of HEWS. In the second the only thing on the scoreboard is a penalty. FFLOP opens the scoring in the third period with a goal by Mya Dalton, assisted by Jocelyn Smaczniak and that period ends in a tie. No score in the first overtime and then 24 seconds into the second overtime HEWS Sophia Phillips scores, assisted by Hart. It’s 2-1 HEWS and they move to the semi-finals. HEWS Ella Buczynski stopped 29/30 shots and for FFLOP it was Kerrigan McCarthy making 30 of 32.
The last game of the evening is #4 Williamsville facing #5 LIDA. Williamsville drops in two goals in the first period scored by Addison Stachura and Molly Braunscheidel. The assists went to Braunscheidel and Berke on the first goal; Sophia DePrima on the second. The first ends 2-0 in favor of Williamsville. In the second, LIDA opens the scoring on a goal by Sydney Radecki, assisted by Emily Lysiak, Williamsville’s Braunscheidel answers back with 6.4 seconds left and the period ends with Williamsville up 3-1. LIDA comes out fighting and Radecki scores on the powerplay and LIDA is back in the game. It’s 3-2 Williamsville, with one goal called back and Williamsville firing on an empty net with no luck. Williamsville moves on to face #1 seed, KENGIL in the semi-finals.
The Williamsville vs KENGIL game is at 4:30 p.m. and the HEWS vs NiCo will begin at 6 p.m. Both games will be streamed by WNY Athletics.
All photos will be available next week on https://janetschultz.smugmug.com
