Williamsville East ties South, St. Francis
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Williamsville East's inability to cash in on its scoring opportunities reared its ugly head again in the Flames' 2-2 tie with Williamsville South last Wednesday on the Amherst Pepsi Center Feature Rink.

East outshot South, 32-17 and 11-3 in the first period, yet couldn't score until 10:32 of the second period when Eric Esposito scored from Gary Styn and Joey Cantafio on a nice passing play.

East took a 2-1 lead at 12:06 of the third on a goal by James Faran, assisted by Simon Fedak.

Each of South's goals came off East miscues. South's Mike Mangone tipped in a slap shot from the point by Mike Anders with 1:31 left in the second period. East coach Mike Torrillo said his team made a couple of position errors on the play.

South's second, and game-tying goal, came with two minutes left in regulation when Austin White recorded an unassisted goal. The puck deflected off an East player and past goalie Jay Hall. Torrillo said his team made a bad decision on a defensive pinch.

"To play as well as we did and not come out with a win was disappointing," said Torrillo. "We have to keep playing hard and eliminate small mistakes."

"I give South credit," he added. "They kept playing. They could have easily folded."

"We've kept it simple," said South coach Sean Green. "The kids have been buying into the system."

South goalie Brian D'Angelo made 30 saves.

East closed out its regular season with a 1-1 tie with St. Francis on Monday on the Amherst Pepsi Center's NHL Rink No. 2.

The Flames' Eric Bogart scored from Max Fogel and Dan Tyx with two minutes left in the game to tie the score.

St. Francis' Matt Ganci tallied from Chad Kujawa and Nick D'Agostino at 4:17 of the second.

"It was a good hockey game," said Torrillo. "I was really proud of our team's effort. They pulled their goalie with about two minutes left. In the last 15 seconds of the game, the puck was in one of our corners but never got to the front of the net. The kids did a good job of holding them off."

St. Francis outshot East, 8-3, in the first period. Torrillo said East goalie Matt Bradley made a couple of big saves to keep the game scoreless after the first period.

The shots were even in the second (8-8) and third (7-7) periods but Torrillo felt his team had the majority of scoring chances, especially in the third.

"It's a tribute to hard work," said Torrillo.

As of press time, East (7-3-4, 12-7-5) holds a one-point edge over Sweet Home for the third seed in the Section VI Western New York Varsity Hockey Federation small school playoffs. Sweet Home played St. Francis on Tuesday in the last regular season game. The result was unavailable before The Bee went to press.

If Sweet Home wins or ties against St. Francis, East plays St. Francis in the quarterfinals. If Sweet Home loses, East plays Niagara Falls. The time, date and location of the game was unavailable before The Bee went to press.

South closed out its regular season with a 2-0 loss to St. Francis on Saturday on the Olympic Rink.

St. Francis outshot South, 34-20, but Green felt his team had more scoring chances than in their previous two games.

"We had many two on one and three on two rushes," said Green.

Ed Spiesz scored both St. Francis' goals.

The Billies are seeded seventh and will tentatively face Kenmore East at 9 p.m. on Sunday at Buffalo State Sports Arena.

"There's always been an upset in the Federation playoffs and I hope we can be the ones to make it happen," said Green.