North hockey's state qualifying chances dwindling
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Williamsville North's Jake Newton breaks away from St. Joe's Evan Pizzuto during the teams' Section VI Western New York Varsity Hockey Federation game last Thursday on the Amherst Pepsi Center's Feature Rink. St. Joe's won 5-3. Photo by John Normile Purchase color photos at www.BeeNews.com

Ever since the Section VI Western New York Varsity Hockey Federation has been allowed to qualify for the New York State Championships, Williamsville North has always been the team leading the way. But after seven years, the Spartans' run, which has included three Division I state championships, could be in serious jeopardy of ending.

North trails Lancaster by three points in the Federation's large school standings for top public school but Lancaster has played two more state qualifying games. North has 14 points (6-3-2) in 11 state qualifying games. Lancaster has 17 points (8-4-1) with one state qualifying game remaining.

If it's an all-private large school Federation final, whichever public school has the best state qualifying record goes to states.

If Lancaster finishes with more state qualifying points, the only way North can advance to states is if they win the large school Federation final.

The Spartans could have given itself a little wiggle room in state qualifying points if they had beaten St. Joe's last Thursday on the Amherst Pepsi Center Feature Rink. Instead, they fell 5-3 before a crowd of 1,510.

When North and St. Joe's met on Jan. 12, the teams skated to a 0-0 tie, mainly because the Spartans used a defensive minded game plan to bottle up the Marauders' offensive stars. This time around, St. Joe's, led by Cole Schneider's four goals and an assist, used its team speed to open a 3-0 lead in the second period which forced the Spartans to take more chances on offense than they normally would have.

"Our speed is our key," said St. Joe's coach Pete Schneider. "If we can get up on teams, it forces others to skate. North is a good defensive team and the last time we played them, they did a great job of bottling us up. But when they had to open it up, it created more odd man rush opportunities for us."

"(After they took the lead), We had to be more aggressive, which was tough," added North coach Bob Rosen.

The first three goals of the game came on three St. Joe's special team plays in the second period. Schneider scored the first two. His first goal came at 10:18 on the power play from Jon Rossi and Jeff Amico. On his second goal, he took a pass from goalie Mark Goulding, slipped past a North defenseman and scored on a short-handed breakaway. Schneider also assisted on Chris Bradley's power-play goal at 3:48. North defenseman Jake Newton accidentally screened Komm on the goal.

Schneider scored twice in the third, scoring on a great two-on-one play with Amico at 8:26 and added one from Ryan White at 4:38. Schneider bowed to the rabid St. Joe's fans in attendance after his fourth goal.

"Cole's having a great season," said Schneider. "He works hard in practice which has allowed him to shine in games."

Rosen also felt his team fell behind early because they were tired from killing off penalties.

The Spartans' best offensive player, Nick Angelo, got a four-minute major penalty and a one-game suspension for a hit from behind one minute into the game. A minute after killing off Angelo's major penalty, Nick Fronczak was called for high sticking.

In the second, North killed off an early elbowing penalty but allowed the two power-play goals and short-handed goal.

"It wasn't so much the penalties as it was the amount of time we spent penalty killing," said Rosen. "We had the same kids penalty kill and I think we ran out of gas."

North got a late second period goal from junior Marc Kadish (Camren Sroda) and third period tallies from Liddle (Joe Johnson) and a power-play goal by Mark Smith (Fronczak).

St. Joe's outshot North, 26-24.

North closed out the week with a 3-1 victory over Williamsville South on Saturday on the Feature Rink and a 5-1 win against Frontier on Sunday at Buffalo State Sports Arena.

South struck first in the first period against North when sophomore defenseman Trevor Clark scored from freshman Justin DiPasquale and sophomore forward Daren Powers.

It stayed that way until 6:53 of the second when Fronczak scored on the power play from Smith and Johnson. Kadish broke the tie at 12:16 of the third on a rebound from Liddle and Kyle Agius. Newton put the Spartans up 3-1 at 10:44 on the power play on a nice shot from the point. Kadish assisted.

North outshot South, 34-12. Kim Sass made 11 saves for the Spartans.

"We didn't play particularly well," said Rosen. "Plus, Angelo was not playing and Sroda was hurt."

South coach Sean Green said goalie Matt Green played well.

North seemed to return to its old form against Frontier.

"It was a similar to the effort against St. Joe's but we had a more solid effort from everybody," said Rosen. "If we get a solid effort from everybody, I like our chances. If we don't do that, we're in trouble and we're not a good hockey team."

Rosen felt his team played a good first period. Fronczak, from Kadish, scored the only goal of the period with 1:17 remaining.

Johnson made it 2-0, from Kadish, at 14:14 of the second.

Angelo put the Spartans ahead, 3-0, from Grant Ricken at 8:50 of the third. Rickan took a shot from the point and Angelo slapped home the rebound.

North added two more goals in the third, Johnson at 2:04 from Agius, and Mark Maraschiello, from James Nowicki and Johnson, at 1:01.

Mike Catuzza scored Frontier's only goal from Nick Battista and Mark Smerka at 7:02 of the third.

North outshot Frontier, 29-25. Komm picked up the win in net.

The only downside to the win was the number of penalties the Spartans took. Rosen said his team committed four penalties in the second and another four in the third.

North (13-5-2) plays Canisius at 7 p.m. on Thursday on the Amherst Pepsi Feature Rink and Clarence at 5 p.m. on Saturday on the Olympic Rink.

The Spartans won both meetings earlier in the season, coming from behind to beat Canisius, 3-2, and blanking Clarence, 5-0.