Hockey
St. Joe's shrugs off slow start to win Federation title
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Williamsville North's Andrew Saint crashes the net to no avail while St. Joe's Hayden Fitzpatrick clears the puck during the Section VI Western New York Varsity Hockey Federation finals on Thursday at Buffalo State Ice Arena. St. Joe's won 5-2. Photo by John Normile Purchase photos at www.BeeNews.com

St. Joe's got off to a slow start in the Section VI Western New York Varsity Hockey Federation finals but finished strong, defeating rival Williamsville North, 5-2, before a sold out crowd of 1,800 on Thursday at Buffalo State Ice Arena.

It's the sixth time St. Joe's has won the Federation crown and its first title since 2003-04. Williamsville North has won the Federation title four times, two coming over the Marauders in the 1999-2000 and 2000-01 seasons. The Spartans last won top honors two years ago.

"I think it's the hardest trophy to win," said St. Joe's coach Pete Schneider. "We're very proud that we won it."

Williamsville North made a strong case why they belonged in the championship game by peppering St. Joe's goaltender Mark Goulding early and often in the first period but the junior made some huge stops, including a right kick save on a shot from Justin Kochan and a sprawling stop on an attempted one-timer from Pat Mulvihill to Ryan Geary to help kill off a North five-on-three advantage. Goulding, who has won his last five starts, officially finished the period with seven saves although the North statistician said the Spartans had 11 shots on net.

"We've rotated three goalies all season and he got hot in the end," said coach Schneider. "Part of the game with North is to always weather the first five minutes of the game. If you can keep them off the score sheet early, you have a good shot of beating them. Mark kept us in it for the first five or six minutes. North had a couple of really good opportunities and then we killed a five on three. That's when we got the momentum."

"They usually score a lot of goals in the first period so I knew that if I kept them off the scoreboard, we could stay with them," added Goulding.

"The first period was the difference," said North coach Bob Rosen. "We cash early on, we win the game. That's the difference of winning and not winning a hockey game. It wasn't meant to be."

Soon after North's two-man advantage, coach Schneider's son, Cole, streaked down the left side of the ice and fired a low shot which seem to surprise North goalie Branden Komm and put St. Joe's ahead, 1-0, with 19 seconds left in the first. Marc Benzino and Robert Schreck assisted.

St. Joe's took the momentum gained at the end of the first period and cashed in one minute into the second when Jeffrey Amico (Kris Raepple) slapped a perfect shot that beat Komm on the short side in the top corner of the net.

North finally got on the scoreboard less than three minutes later when Mulvihill banged home his own rebound. Mark Smith and Andrew Saint assisted. St. Joe's responded 25 seconds later when Ron Femia set up MVP Anthony Caruso, who flipped the puck over Komm's right shoulder for a power-play goal.

The score remained 3-1 until 1:17 into the third when Caruso scored his second of the game on a weird bounce. Geary made a no-look backhanded pass in the neutral zone that was intercepted by the Marauders' Kris Raepple. Raepple shot the puck into the corner to Lucas Marchiori, who cycled it behind the net to Raepple, who flipped the puck over the North net and Komm directly in front to a striding Caruso, who beat Komm in the five-hole.

Mulvihill scored his second of the game from Tom Goehrig and Jacob Newton with 8:29 left but for the rest of the game, the Spartans could not beat Goulding, who finished with 33 saves.

St. Joe's was assessed a slashing penalty with 2:44 to play but North could not generate many scoring chances. The Spartans pulled Komm for an extra attacker but Schneider made them pay, scoring from Femia with 45 seconds remaining.

Each team's season is not finished. North (22-3-3) will host Section VII's Seton Catholic at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday as part of a regional doubleheader at the Amherst Pepsi Center's Feature Rink. Sweet Home (17-3-4) will play Section IX's Monroe-Woodbury at 6:30 p.m. St. Joe's (21-5-2) will face Fordham Prep at 3 p.m. Sunday at Buffalo State College in the New York State Catholic Championships.

"Our goal from day one is to go back and defend our state championship," said Rosen. "We wanted to win the Federation title but our number one goal is to win a state championship."

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com