Geary lifts North hockey to several victories
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

It wasn't easy but Williamsville North walked out of the Amherst Pepsi Center with hard-earned 3-1 victories over Canisius on Thursday and Frontier on Saturday. And Ryan Geary had his hand in both wins.

Geary opened the scoring against Canisius at 12:30 of the second period with an unassisted goal and tied Frontier at 1-1 from Pat Mulvihill and Tom Goehrig. Geary also scored three goals in a 6-1 North win over Orchard Park on Dec. 31.

"Ryan has a tremendous desire to win," said North coach Bob Rosen. "He's done that a couple of times for us when we're not playing particularly well and just takes over a game and says 'we're going to win'."

North dominated Canisius in shots, 32-12, but the Crusaders' Eric Tarapacki was up to the task, especially in the first period. The Spartans outshot Canisius, 12-2, but it was scoreless until Geary's goal.

The Canisius game remained 1-0 North until 35 seconds into the third when Justin Kochan scored on the power play from Jake Newton. Kochan added an empty-net goal with 21 seconds left.

Canisius' Max Christ tallied from Cos Polino and Alex Briand with 4:56 left in the third.

North overcame three minor penalties and a major in the first period to win against Frontier.

In the second, Frontier's Chris Gonser scored on the power play from Mark Smerka at 12:22 but was answered on the next shift by Geary. Josh Little (Nick Angelo, Goehrig) and Kyle Agius (Angelo) also scored in the second.

North outshot Frontier, 33-18.

Geary's first goal against OP came short-handed from Mark Kadish. After OP's Adrean Copeland tied it at 1-1 from Shawn Byrns and Shawn Scanlon in the first, Geary answered in the second on the power play from Mulvihill and Angelo. His third goal came short-handed with three minutes left in the second.

Mark Kadish (Mike Cusenz, Mark Smith), John Walter (Cusenz) and Cusenz (Agius, Little) scored in the third for North who outshot OP in the game, 40-20.

Goalie Brandon Komm picked up all three wins in net.

North (15-1, 7-1) plays Kenmore West at 1 p.m. Saturday on the Feature Rink. North won, 4-1, over the Blue Devils earlier this year.

"We've been playing OK," said Rosen. "There are definitely some things we need to improve upon. Hopefully, we'll get those things fixed up before Saturday."

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com