Flames' hockey falls to Division II leader
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Bishop Timon-St. Jude is the top team in Division II in the Section VI Western New York Varsity Hockey Federation for a reason and Williamsville East got a dose of it last Thursday on the Amherst Pepsi Center Olympic Rink.

Timon scored four unanswered goals en route to a 4-2 victory.

East scored the only goal of the first period, a top shelf power play goal by Eric Bogart (Colin Lucey) at 13:12 and got the first tally of the second period by James Faran (Mike DeStephano and Lucey) at 8:25.

After that, all of the goal scoring came from Timon. Gage Carrig scored at the six-minute mark and Jesse Kaiser added a power play tally later to tie the score at 2-2 heading into the third.

Timon's Michael Cassidy scored on a breakaway at 10:46 of the third. Michael Carrig closed out the scoring at the six-minute mark.

The shots were tied 27-27. Timon outshot East, 14-8, in the first period. East outshot Timon, 9-6, and 10-7 in the second and third.

"We missed a lot of shots from the slot," said East coach Mike Torrillo. "We missed three breakaways and five two-on-ones."

East's Matt Bradley and Timon's Kyle Johnson tended net.

The Flames' week continued with a 2-1 loss to Orchard Park Saturday on the Feature Rink. East trailed 2-0 before Faran (Dan Tyx) scored with 2:10 left in the third period. East outshot OP, 11-7, in the third period.

OP's scored twice in the second period. OP's first goal came from James Kelly. Adrean Copeland put the Quakers up 2-0 later in the period on a five-on-three advantage.

"We played well," said Torrillo. "We had three penalties in the whole game and two of them came during the same time. We took a penalty and got another one 10 seconds into it. It ended up being the difference in the game."

Goalie Jay Hall made 31 saves for the Flames.

East closed out its week on Monday with an 8-1 rout over Amherst on the Feature Rink.

The Flames scored twice in the first period and three times in the second and third periods.

Bogart led East with three goals and an assist. Gary Styn scored twice. Tyx and Tyler Durinka each tallied on the power play. Tyx also had an assist. Eric Esposito had a goal and assist. DeStefano chipped in four assists. Lucey had three assists. Joey Cantafio, Peter Bouris, Simon Fedak and Justin Floss each had one assist.

"Our depth took it to them," said Torrillo. "We rolled four lines and six defensemen. We pressured them and when we got the power play, we took advantage."

Bradley made 19 saves as East outshot Amherst, 33-20.

Kevin Denny scored Amherst's only goal in the second period on the power play from Mike Gruttaduria on a tip-in in front of the net.

East (9-6-3, 4-2-2) plays St. Francis at 9 p.m. on Thursday the Olympic Rink and Niagara Falls at 3 p.m. on Saturday on the Feature Rink. They meet Sweet Home at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 29, on the Feature Rink.

"I'm happy with the play," said Torrillo. "It's not like there's one line doing all of the work. We're getting three or four lines up and down the ice. They're buying into the team effort. There's no 'I should be playing over this guy in games'."