East hockey can't bury enough scoring chances, loses to Timon
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Williamsville East's Dan Tyx, right, outskates Bishop Timon-St. Jude's Jesse Kaiser in the Flames' 6-3 loss in the Section VI Western New York Varsity Hockey Federation small school semifinals last Thursday on the Amherst Pepsi Center Feature Rink.

One of Williamsville East's problems all season came back to haunt them in the Section VI Western New York Varsity Hockey Federation small school semifinals.

The fourth-seeded Flames outshot top-seeded Bishop Timon-St. Jude, 35-26, yet lost, 6-3, last Thursday on the Amherst Pepsi Center Feature Rink.

East outshot Timon, 11-8, in the first period and was down, 2-1, and, 14-9, in the second period, and trailed, 4-1.

East coach Mike Torrillo said his team made mistakes on both Timon goals in the first period. Timon's Josh Piegay scored from Mike McCarthy four minutes into the game. Piegay tallied his second from Gage Carrig and McCarthy with 22 seconds remaining.

East's Simon Fedak cut Timon's lead in half with three seconds left in the first period. Jon Gambocorta and Mike DeStephano were credited with assists. It was Fedak's first goal of the season.

In the second period, Torrillo said his team was shooting all over Timon's goalie, and not scoring. Minutes later, Timon's Michael Cassidy took a shot from the outside that glanced off East goalie Matt Bradley's pad, hit the goal post, and went in. Timon's fourth goal came later in the second on a five-on-three power-play by Piegay from Patrick Isch and David Panek. The five-on-three was caused by two East penalties occurring on the same play. It was the only penalties the Flames took all game.

Trailing 5-1 in the third period, East made it a game, drawing to 5-3 after goals by Fedak, from DeStephano, at the nine-minute mark, and Eric Bogart a minute later from Matt Notaro. Torrillo said one of his players hit a goal post late in the game. His team also had three great chances on the power play late and couldn't score. East outshot Timon, 10-7, in the third.

Piegay scored an empty-net goal with 1:33 remaining.

"We had our chances," said Torrillo. "To the kids credit, they never quit and played hard."

East finishes 13-8-5. The Flames lose 18 seniors, including leading goal scorer Bogart and all three goalies, Bradley, Jay Hall and Steve Bukolt.

"I praise the seniors for their efforts," said Torrillo. "I hate to see them go down like that."

"Overall, I thought the team finished strong," he added. "We went down fighting."