Sweet Home hockey ties, loses to Timon
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

The Sweet Home hockey team found out last week what they are made of against the top dog in the Section VI Western New York Varsity Hockey Federation Division II.

The Panthers tied Bishop Timon-St. Jude, 5-5, last Friday on the Amherst Pepsi Center Feature Rink then were defeated by Timon, 4-1, last Saturday at Niagara University's Dwyer Arena.

You would think a coach would be happier with a 5-5 tie rather than a 4-1 loss, but not Panthers coach Dave Gerspach.

"I was happier (with the loss) because of the way we ended the game," said Gerspach.

Timon scored three times in the first period on Saturday, scoring at 13:45, Phillip O'Connor (Ben Heitanan), 10:54, Gage Carrig (John Lesenhuber, Michael Cassidy, power-play goal) and 4:56, Jesse Kaiser (Michael Carrig, Gage Carrig, power-play goal) before Sweet Home's Chris Covel (Ryan Marko, Rich Beaudet) scored on the power play to make the score 3-1 at the end of the first.

Gage Carrig scored unassisted at 9:57 of the third to close out the scoring.

"After a shaky first 10 minutes, I thought we were the better team in the second and third period," said Gerspach. "We had a ton of chances and could not put it by their goalie."

In Thursday's meeting, the Panthers were the ones coming out of the gate the aggressor, getting goals from Covel (Marko, Richard Brooks), Marko (Dominic Puntillo, Brett Guynn) and Mike Campise (Adam Titanic) to build a 3-0 first period lead and increasing it to 4-0 after a goal by Marko (Covel) 17 seconds into the second period.

"The first period was probably our best period of hockey we've played this season," said Gerspach. "It shows what we're capable of doing. We did a lot of the things we practiced. Everything looked good."

But, as Gerspach, put it, his team "took the foot off the gas and took silly penalties to let Timon back in the game."

Two goals by Michael Cassidy (first one assisted by Michael Craig and Zach Williams; second assisted by Michael Craig) closed Timon's deficit to 4-2 after two periods. In the third, Mike McCarthy (Cassidy, Michael Craig) scored at 10:22 on the power play and Cassidy (Gage Carrig) scored at 5:55 short-handed, to tie the game.

A 1:34 later, Marko (Covel, Campise) gave Sweet Home back the lead on the power play only for Cassidy to score an unassisted goal 33 seconds later.

Timon outshot Sweet Home, 31-28, in Thursday's game. Sweet Home outshot Timon, 33-30, on Saturday. Panther sophomore Chris Koester made 26 saves on Thursday. Senior Rob Castiglia had 26 saves on Saturday.

In both games, Gerspach lauded the play of Marko.

"Those two games were the best back-to-back games I've ever seen him play," said Gerspach. "His speed, puck control and vision of the ice was outstanding. A fan wouldn't need to see two shifts to notice him."

Gerspach hopes his team can build off the Timon games in the Rome Tournament this week in Rome, N.Y. The Panthers (3-4-2, 1-1-1) play Section I's Rye at 5 p.m. on Thursday. The winner plays Section III's Rome or Section II's Queensbury at 3:30 p.m. on Friday in the final. The consolation game is 1 p.m. on Friday. All four teams were in last year's Division II state tournament.

"If we're going to win a state championship, these are the teams who we are going to have to beat in March," said Gerspach.