Bantam Bisons miss tournament finals

The Buffalo Bantam Minor team came up short in its bid for a playoff game this past week in the Tonawanda Tournament.

In the first game against Amherst, Buffalo had a 2-1 lead on goals from Lucas Buscemi (Marc Bezbatchenko, Eric Adolf) and Adolf (unassisted) as the final minutes of the third loomed. But a Buffalo penalty, and the Amherst goalie pulled for an extra attacker, created a six on four and the tying score came with 24 seconds left.

Buffalo cooled the Hornets 4-1 behind scores from David Arthur (Buscemi, Sam Romano), Josh Little (Alex Fritz), Adolf (Bezbatchenko, Jake Pugliese) and Jordan Rusek (James Brand, Fritz).

Conner Naughton and Jim Basil tended the nets for Buffalo, while Ian McQuestion, Evan Thur, Brad Martynowicz, and Sean Basil put on heavy pressure.

Needing a win against host Tonawanda to advance, the Bisons scored to tie the game at one with 30 seconds left in the first, from Romano

Fritz). A Lightning short-handed goal in the second was matched by Bezbatchenko (Jim Frauenhofer) in the third.

Graig Knowlton, Joshua Shupe, and JC Grabenstatter had big hits to crate turnovers.

The Lightning scored on a screened shot from the blue line, and added an empty netter as the Bisons fell, 4-2.