Bisons' hockey beaten in Niagara

The Bantam Minor Buffalo Bisons were defeated in their games at the Niagara University Holiday Tournament last weekend.

In the first game, Batavia jumped out to a lead and withstood any comeback in a 4-1 victory. Eric Adolf scored the lone goal for Buffalo.

Mentor was the next opponent, and tallied first after a scoreless initial stanza. The Bisons tied things up with a goal by Alex Fritz after a great pass from Marc Bezbatchenko from the side of the net.

Mentor would go up 4-1, but a power-play goal by Graig Knowlton (Bezbatchenko, Jim Frauenhofer) made it closer as time wound down. Buffalo pulled goalie Jim Basil for an extra skater but was unable to find the back of the net as time expired.

Despite being outshot, 32-12, the Bisons battled the Niagara Jr. Purple Eagles for the entire game, coming up on the short side of a 4-2 score.

David Arthur (Sean Basil) scored in the last minute of the first, as did Jake Pugliese in the second. The score was knotted at 2-2 entering the third.

The Bisons had few scoring chances the rest of the way and the clock expired as the Bisons tried to mount a comeback.

Conner Naughton was between the pipes for Buffalo.

Next up for the Bisons is a home game on Saturday against Cheektowaga.