Squirt Minor 'AAA' delivers exciting 5-3 win

The Amherst Knights and Wheatfield Blades Squirt Minor "AAA" hockey teams kept the fans on the edge of their seats, while trading scoring chances throughout the game, last Sunday afternoon at the Wheatfield Hockey Outlet. The Knights won 5-3.

The Knights fell behind early when the Blades' Ryan Niedzialowski scored from the slot on a well executed first period power play.

The Knights' Dante Todaro almost tied the game when he stole the puck at center ice and found himself with one man to beat. Todaro beat the defensemen but the Wheatfield goaltender made a great save.

A number of penalties kept the pressure on Amherst. Dylan Lock, Alex Dimitroff, John Hazelet and Ellie Smith worked well as a penalty killing team. Lock showed some aggressiveness on the penalty kill as he challenged the Wheatfield defense on every opportunity. His hard work managed to create a couple of short-handed scoring opportunities.

However, before the first period ended, Wheatfield scored two more goals to take a 3-0 lead.

The pace of play began to pick up as Amherst started to claw their way back into the game. Amherst goaltender Mark O'Malley made it clear to his teammates that this game was far from over as he thwarted a Wheatfield player on a clear breakaway.

Following that scoring chance, Wheatfield had two consecutive wrap-around scoring attempts but came up empty-handed. O'Malley executed spectacular twin post-hugging saves on the left and right side of the Amherst net.

The Amherst fans were still cheering, when with just a few seconds to go in the first period, Owen Green, with laser-like precision, hit Danny Tyczynski with a breakaway pass. A strong back-checking Saint bothered Tyczynski enough to throw off his shot but Tyczynski was able to recover and score with one second left in the period. Wheatfield led 3-1 but Amherst had seized the game's momentum.

Amherst started strong in the second period when Mitchell Spring won a board-battle in the offensive zone, skated into the slot and let go a wrist shot. Matthew Steffan buried the rebound to bring the Knights within one goal.

With Amherst tiring from their comeback bid, Wheatfield began to apply some strong sustained pressure in the Knights' zone. John Hazelet made his presence felt with a "not to be denied" corner effort, that saw him battle against two, then three, hard-working Wheatfield forwards. Hazelet, sorely missed in the last Knights game, used his strength, solid body positioning and strong stick work to move the puck up the boards and outside the blue line. This inspired effort was not lost on Hazelet's teammates as they found renewed energy in the third period.

The third period was filled with rink-length rushes. Amherst defensemen Luke Eberhard, Danny Brodzik, Ellie Smith and Bradley Truel calmly kept the fast Wheatfield forwards to the outside, allowing goaltender O'Malley the opportunity to see any incoming shots.

Wheatfield's Stephan Gosciak did manage to score his second goal of the game to give Wheatfield a 4-2 lead.

Amherst continued to play strong. Brodzik made a smooth rush up the right side and into the Blades' zone to give the Amherst wingers room to forecheck. Defenseman Chris Winiecki stole the puck along the left side and let go a solid shot on net. Green had a left-side rush that ended with a shot that trickled past the right post. Matthew Ruggiero created some good scoring chances and sent MJ Bronsky in for a rocket wrist shot the Wheatfield goalie struggled to save. Ruggiero also had an impressive rink-length sprint that saw him catch a rushing Wheatfield player from behind and stop a potential game-breaking goal.

With time running down, the Spring- Steffan-Dimitroff line made a nice three-player passing play. Dimitroff moved the puck up the right boards to Spring. Spring made a cross-ice pass to a breaking Steffan who carried the puck inside the blue line. Steffan returned the pass to an on-rushing Spring who scored the Knights' third goal and cut the Blades lead to one. The Wheatfield Blades led 4-3.

The Knights' coaching staff pulled goaltender O'Malley, once again bringing the crowd to the edge of their seats, but the Knights were unable to get the tying goal.

Wheatfield was able to score an empty net goal in the closing seconds and make the final score 5-3.