Tomczak nets winner as Squirt Rangers surge into semifinals

The Squirt Rangers continued its playoff run on Sunday evening with a 3-2 victory over the Red Sabres.

The Red Sabres came out flying at the outset as Nick Molnar had to stop Adam Tucker on a breakaway just a minute into the first period. The Red Sabres continued to pressure the Rangers in their own end but Molnar repeatedly shut the door with spectacular saves.

Midway through the first, the pressure paid off as Tucker got one past Molnar to open the scoring with a short-handed unassisted tally.

Red Sabres goalie Andrew Welchoff now saw some pressure of his own as the Rangers started to charge back. Welchoff was steady as he turned away opportunities by Alex Touma from the point and Jason Raimondi and Jake Fuzak in close.

With just two minutes left in the first period, Matthew Soos, who has scored many big goals for the Rangers this year, muscled his way through a crowd and reached around a sprawling Welchoff to tie the score at 1-1, assisted by David Hnat and Steven Swaintek.

The second period opened as the first one did, with Red Sabres' Tucker, Nick Tracy and Noah Basehart, among others, peppering Molnar with shot after shot. Molnar stopped them all until Michael Geiger got free on passes from Anthony Sarcinelli and Matthew Deeb and buried a shot to put the Red Sabres out in front again.

The Hejmanowski-Fremming-Geska line came up big on the power play for the Rangers as Hejmanowski won another faceoff in the Red Sabres zone and Darin Geska drilled a shot past Welchoff with just a minute left in the second period that tied the score at 2-2.

The game looked like it might remain tied as both goalies were at the top of their game. Molnar would stop Andrew Mosher and Welchoff would stop Jason Raimondi. This battle tightened as time went on. With eight minutes remaining in regulation, the Tomczak-Fuzak-Mikulec line got on the board as Tomczak won a scramble in front of the net and scored what would be the game winner after a fantastic effort from Raimondi in the Red Sabres' zone.

The Rangers hung on with continued saves by Molnar and brilliantly steady play from defensemen, Michael Battaglia and Mickey Evans. Both Battaglia and Evans stopped Red Sabres rushes in the third period, including an outstanding effort by Evans to stop a Tucker breakaway with less than a minute left.

The Rangers will meet the Flyers later this week as they try to earn a spot on Super Sunday.