Hard work lifts Tigers' hockey to competitive games

Trevor Clark (12) of Williamsville South flies over Chris Scamurra of Amherst Central but still manages a shot on goal. The Billies won Thursday night, 3-1. Photo by David F. Sherman Purchase photos at www.BeeNews.com

While their record, and at times even the scoreboard, may not resemble the makings of a successful season, Amherst Tigers varsity hockey coach Rich Crozier is proud of the efforts his hockey team continues to put in.

"I give these boys a lot of credit," said Crozier. "Despite our record and a few uneven scores, they continue to work hard and we continue to get better each game."

That hard work for Crozier's team paid off this week in a pair of competitive games against Williamsville South and Kenmore East.

Junior Matt Allwes scored his fourth goal of the season and freshman Sean Smith made 23 saves as the Tigers fell to South, 3-1, Thursday night on the Amherst Pepsi Center Olympic Rink.

After falling behind 1-0 late in the first period the Tigers responded very quickly. Junior Al McQuiggan fished the puck out of the corner and fed it back to sophomore Kevin Denny. Denny let a hard, low slap shot go on South goalie Thomas Tysowsky (16 saves). Allwes skated hard to the net, picked up the rebound and slid it past the Billie goaltender, tying the game at 1-1.

South answered with two goals of their own in the second period. Both came 11 seconds apart short-handed from strong Billie forechecking. Greg Reed scored unassisted at 6:46 followed by a tally from Kevin Winnert (Trevor Clark) at 6:35.

"That was a backbreaker for Amherst," said South coach Sean Green.

Greg Potter scored unassisted with 1:22 left in the first period.

Despite numerous chances and plenty of hard work the Tigers were unable to get anything past the South goalie in the third.

After the game, Crozier was complimentary towards Allwes' play. "Matt is a very talented player with a lot of emotion," Crozier said. "We've worked on channeling that emotion a lot this season. It seems to be paying off lately. It's great to see him mature into an offensive threat for our team."

On Sunday afternoon, the Tigers took on Kenmore East at Buffalo State College. Allwes scored his team leading fifth goal of the season and McQuiggan and junior Dan Hubbard each recorded two points each.

After falling behind 3-0, the Tigers showed a tremendous amount of heart and mounted a comeback. It all started on the Tigers power play. McQuiggan stole the puck from the Kenmore East defenseman and fed Hubbard on the left side of the ice. Hubbard held on to the puck and gave it back to McQuiggan, who one-timed the puck past the Kenmore East goalie, cutting the lead to 3-1.

Halfway through the third, the Tigers struck again on the power play when Allwes scored his second goal in as many games. The Tigers were peppering the Kenmore East goalie with shots. After a frenzy in front of the Kenmore East net, McQuiggan walked out and took a shot. After junior Blake Napierala's shot was denied, Allwes picked up the puck and slammed home the rebound.

"It was nice to see the power play start clicking again," added Crozier "We've been working on special teams a lot in practice and it seemed to pay off."

Late in the third, the Tigers pulled their goalie in a desperate attempt to try and tie up the game, but unfortunately it wasn't to be on this day. Despite a great effort, the Tigers fell short in a heartbreaker, 4-2.

"The schedule this year has been grueling for my hockey team," said Crozier. "Three games in four days is tough and we have to do it three times this season. That said, you would have thought that my team had been off for a week given the effort they put in today. At 3-0, I'd venture to say that a lot of teams might have packed it in, but not this team. We were the better team on the ice for the second half of this game. We'll use that momentum this weekend in our tournament at Geneseo State College.

The Tigers travel to Geneseo for a series of games against Section V's Geneseo and Victor. The Tigers take on Geneseo at 8 p.m. on Friday and at 6 p.m. against Victor on Saturday.

"At times, it nice to get away from the Sweet Home's and Williamsville East's of the Federation and see how we really stack up in the small school state division," said Crozier. "We're excited about the opportunity to go there and win a tournament. These boys have worked hard in the last month and they deserve a reward for their efforts."

Williamsville South

The Billies' other game this week was an exciting 1-1 overtime tie at Section V's Batavia on Saturday.

"It was an action-packed game that went back and forth," said Green. "For us, it was a great morale booster."

Potter scored South's only goal from Reed and Clark in the first period. Erin Pokoprowski tied it at 1-1 in the second on the power play.

The Billies outshot Batavia, 38-27. Matt Green was in net for South.

South plays Kenmore East at 9 p.m. Thursday on the Olympic Rink, Lancaster at 3 p.m. Saturday on the Feature Rink, and Canisius at 5 p.m. Sunday at Buffalo State College.

(Patrick J. Nagy contributed to this article)