Cohen's hat trick keeps Mite Rangers unbeaten in league play

Matt Cohen's hat trick staked the Mite Rangers to a 3-0 lead after two periods and the team held on to defeat the Gray Sabres, 3-1, Sunday morning at the Pepsi Center.

The game started very slowly as neither team mounted much of an offensive threat through the first several minutes of the contest.

The Rangers finally got on the board late in the first period. Defenseman Drew Elliott head-manned the puck up to center Chris Dirienzo, who got it up to Cohen at the blue line, and Cohen skated in and let go a high wrist shot that went in just over the left shoulder of Gray Sabre goaltender Adam Higgins.

Cohen gave the Rangers a 2-0 lead with 2:37 remaining in the second period when he and Dirienzo came in two-on-one and Dirienzo's perfect pass just inside the blue line sent Cohen in alone.

The Rangers went ahead 3-0 less than a minute later when Cohen scored his team-leading 17th goal of the season, assisted by Jonathan Phillips.

Rachel Deperio scored for the Gray Sabres with just under five minutes remaining, and the Gray Sabres pulled their goaltender in favor of the extra attacker but could not put the puck past Ranger netminder Alex Streng.

The Rangers peppered Gray Sabre goalie Higgins throughout the game but he was spectacular in net, making a number of impressive saves, including several on Cohen. He also thwarted scoring chances by Dirienzo, Austin Stanley, Phillips, William Mann, Cam Kiefer, Michael Kreuz, and Jake Kantor to keep his team in the game.

As they have all season, the Rangers, undefeated in league play, played superb team hockey, and Ryan Arrastia, Patrick Rosen, Patrick Greeley, Mark Venditti, Brennan Hurley and Jason Koginos all contributed with excellent positional play.

The Rangers look forward to this weekend's Friendship Tournament, in hopes of avenging its lone loss of the season against Douglas Dental Care of Burlington.

Rangers 5, Buffalo Shamrocks 0

Alex Streng scored two goals and Matt Cohen and Chris Dirienzo each added a goal and an assist as the Amherst Mite Rangers earned a hard fought 5-0 exhibition victory over the Buffalo Shamrocks Friday night at the Amherst Pepsi Center.

The Rangers, undefeated in league play and 10-1 overall, peppered the Shamrock net with shots all night but the Shamrock goaltending was rock solid through two periods to keep the game within reach before the Rangers were able to pull away.

The teams played very evenly through most of the first period. Ranger goaltender Jake Kantor had to make a miraculous save off of a breakaway just 30 seconds into the game to prevent the Shamrocks from getting on the board first.

Play through the neutral zone was very tight for the next several minutes as the teams, meeting for the first time, cautiously felt each other out. Ryan Arrastia, Patrick Rosen, and Austin Stanley showed particularly strong puck pursuit for the Rangers.

The Rangers finally drew first blood 7:11 into the game when Streng scored on the power play after Jason Koginos won a faceoff in the Shamrock zone.

Three minutes into the second period, Cohen made it 2-0 off of a tic-tac-toe play from Dirienzo to Jonathan Phillips to Cohen, who blasted it home from 10 feet out. The score remained 2-0 through two periods of play.

As has been their penchant, however, the Rangers exploded for three goals within a two-minute span in the third period to break open a close game.

The blue shirts took a 3-0 lead with just under eight minutes to play when Michael Kreuz took a pass from Mark Venditti and hit Brennan Hurley with a perfect lead pass up ice, which Hurley chased down and put neatly away.

Less than two minutes later, Patrick Greeley made a great offer to Cam Kiefer, who was denied, but Streng was there to pounce on the rebound for his second goal of the game, giving the Rangers a 4-0 lead.

Only 21 seconds later, the Rangers increased their lead to 5-0 when Cohen took control of the puck in his own zone and went coast to coast before letting go a high wrist shot that handcuffed the Shamrock netminder, dropped to the ice, and tantalizingly trickled toward the goal line before Dirienzo, alertly following up on the play, banged it into the net with authority.

The Shamrocks awarded the game puck to a well deserving Streng, who now has five goals in his last two games and seven for the season.