WNYGVIH: Regular Season Wrap for February 2-6
It’s here, the playoffs and championships. Another great season for WNYGVIH is coming to a close.
CASH has captured the Federation Championship for 2026 but the League Champions are yet to be determined and it’s anyone’s game.
Quarterfinals will be played at Buffalo State College Ice Arena on Tuesday, February 10.
First up is #7 NICO against #2 LIDA. NICO has had a rough year with a 0-14-2 record. However, one of their players has managed to land a spot on the WNYGVIH All Time Scoring Leader Board. Sam Latini has moved to #8 overall with 76 goals and 61 assists for 137 points in 99 games.
LIDA secured #2 with 11-4-1 record and 34.5 points.
NICO and LIDA will face off at 4 p.m.
At 6 p.m. it will be #6 Williamsville against #3 HEWS. Williamsville comes in with a 2-14-0 record and HEWS with a 11-5-0 record.
The final game at 8 p.m. will pit KenGiPort against FOP. KGIP’s Teagan Willats has also secured a spot on the All-Time Scoring Leader List with 35 goals and 58 assists for 93 points in 115 games.
The semi-finals will be held on Thursday, February 12 with #4 playing #1 CASH at 6 p.m. and then at 8 p.m. it will be Seeds 3 and 4.
The Private School Championship with St. Mary’s of Lancaster facing off against Monsignor Martin will be at 6 p.m. on Monday, February 16 at 6 p.m. and the Section VI Championship will be at 8 p.m.
A look at this past week, which was loaded with regular and make-up games and a couple Senior Nights.
Monday: LIDA over KenGiPort 4-1; St. Mary’s over NICO 9-1; HEWS beat Williamsville 6-0.
It was Senior Night for HEWS and we congratulate Kylie Wegrzynowski, Brynn Holland, Sophia Phillips, Kelsey Barrett and Meghan Waskielewicz and wish them well.
MacKenzie Benker had the game-winner, unassisted. Then goals were added by Phillips, Holland, Barrett.
Assisting were Holland, Allie Schmirl, Barrett and Waskielewicz. Ella Buczynski stopped 14 shots for the shut-out win. In goal for Williamsville, Anna Bacon stopped 39 of 45.
LIDA secured their #2 spot with a 4-1 victory over KenGiPort with two goals by Leah Dowling, and additional ones from Brynn Cafferty and Caitlin Sinclair. Assists went to Lucia Lawrence, Sinclair, Dowling and Cafferty. Iris Schimenti stopped 18 of 19 for the W. Savanna Shaft had the lone goal for Kengiport, assisted by MacKenzie Kumrow and Kiley Burke. Hadley Dahlgren was netminder for KenGiPort stopping 32 of 35.
Sam Latini had the single goal for NICO in the loss to St. Mary’s. Lila Jones faced 42 shots and stopped all but 9. Scoring for St. Mary’s were Avery Szczesek, Shea Hall, Gabe Lowell, Meghan Donnelly, Olivia Salamone, Brynn Karan, Sophia Quinn and Morgan Gorman. Assists were credited to Donnelly, Lauren Gilano, Salamone, Szczesek and Alaina Roland.
NICO celebrated Senior Night on Tuesday with congratulations going to Latini, Myla Chopyak and Sam Draper.
NICO’s Latini dropped in the lone goal for the team and the netminder Lila Jones faced 24 shots on goal.
For KenGiPort it was Willats, Kumrow, Krawczyk, Avery Brach, Maddie Jagow and Isabella Shaft assisted by Savannah Shaft, Maddie Jagow, Alera Ostertag, Willats, Isabella Shaft, Krawczyk, and Kirsten Billman. In net Ella Johnston stopped 5 of 6 shots.
Two St. Mary’s players chalked up the goals for the team and making it a 5-1 win over LIDA. Szczesek had a hattrick and Donnelly put in two for the 5 goal win. They were assisted by Alaina Roland, Dylaney Dee and Captain Gabe Lowell. Donnelly also logged two assists. In goal Betsy Accurso stopped 39 of 40 shots.
For LIDA it was Cafferty, Dowling on Sinclair on the goal with Schimenti stopped 33 of 38 shots.
FOP’s Hannah Favata had the game winner in a 4-1 win. Sabrina Basamania scored the first goal, assisted by Peyton Forcucci and Favata. Peyton assisted on Favata’s goal. Then it was the Forcucci sisters on the third goal, a power play scored by Peyton and assisted by Brooke. Kayli Tefft scored an empty netter with Keira Keaton keeping MonMar at bay stopped 14 of 15 shots. For MonMar it was Avery McDonald scoring, unassisted and in goal Grace Elliott faced 35 shots.
We covered a double header on Wednesday with MonMar at HEWS at Northtowns Arena. HEWS scored two goals 21 seconds apart in the first period to take a 2-0 lead after one. Schmirl had the game-winner, assisted by Benker and Cooper. Vetter, assisted by Cooper, added the second. With no scoring in the second we moved to the third and HEWS’ third goal by Grabowski, assisted by Holland. Katelyn Larson was in net for HEWS and stopped 11 shots for the shutout win. In goal for MonMar, Kate Kelly faced 45 shots.
Moved over to the feature rink for CASH at Williamsville. This is home ice to both teams. CASH opened the scoring in the second period after nothing in the first. Kiley Breeze scored unassisted and the second period ends 1-0 CASH. CASH added three more in the third with two more goals by Breeze and one by Lyla Kinney. Jenny Wild, Cece Watson, Maya Adimey and Kinney had assists. In goal Ella Celej stopped 10 for the shutout win and for Williamsville Anna Bacon stopped 28 of 32.
Webster visited FOP for a non-league match-up before one of our teams faces them in the Section V vs Section VI playoff.
Webster won 4-2 with goals from Molly Meyer, assisted by Molly Smith; Smith from Brooklyn Pagano and Meyer; the game-winner by Jess Nappi assisted by Pagano and Ella Buss and Buss, an empty net goal assisted by Lucy Barbato. Their goalie Mia Wambach stopped 24 of 26 shots.
For FOP it was Hollander and Favata scoring, assisted by Smaczniak, Tefft and Costanzo. Fix stopped 26 of 29 shots.
According to sources, Webster is a fast, aggressive and skilled team.
HEWS won in a shutout over NICO. Goal scorers included Cooper, Phillips, A.Anderson, Smardz, Sokolowski, Waszkielewicz and Schmirl. Buczynski stopped 7 of 7 shots. In goal for NICO, Jones faced 30 shots.
CASH beat MonMar 3-0 with Breeze scoring the game-winner on the power-play, assisted by Wild. Breeze also scored the final goal on the power play, assisted by Watson. The second goal of the night was scored by Dominik, unassisted. Celej had a 19 save shutout win. In goal for MonMar, Kelley stopped 39 of 42.
Over at Northtown it was KenGiPort vs Williamsville with KenGiPort coming out on top with four goals. Williamsville lone scorer was Besancon, assisted by Lombardo. In goal Bacon stopped 43 of 47 shots. For KenGiPort it was Burke with the first goal, assisted by Kumrow and Sheridan Jagow. Willats scored the game-winner, assisted by Maddie Jagow. Then it was an unassisted goal by Savannah Shaft with the final goal by Ashlynn Becker, assisted by Alexa Denning and Savannah Shaft. Dahlgren gets the win with 16 saves on 17 shots.
CASH will be facing off against Webster Friday night. We will post the scoring later, as this is a non-league game.
At the end of the regular season LIDA’s Dowling leads the Scoring with 24 goals and 17 assists for 41 points in 16 games. She is followed by Peyton Forcucci (FOP) 18g/16a; Teagan Willats (KGIP) 16g/16a; Brynn Cafferty (LIDA) 13g/17 a and Sabrina Basamania(FOP) 10g/19 a for 29 points. Each has played 16 games.
Ella Celej(CASH) heads the goalie list with a .943 save percentage in 724.42 minutes played. She has had 4 shutouts. Ella Buczynski (HEWS) has a .919 save percentage for the second spot while playing 579.90 minutes and logging 5 shut-outs. Grace Elliott (MONMAR) sits at third with a .916 save percentage in 229.87 minutes of play; then Hadley Dahlgren (KGIP) .913 and 337.67 minutes and Ella Johnston (KGIP) with .912 in 427.30 minutes. Dahlgren and Johnston each have had 2 shutout victories.
Most minutes played in net go to Lila Jones of NICO with 729.95. Most shut-outs with five goes to Buczynski and facing the most shots is Anna Bacon (Williamsville) with 409, of which she stopped 347.
A congratulatory salute to HEWS Kelsey Barrett on being named the Buffalo Sabres Woman Hockey Player of the Month for January. It was announced at Thursday night’s game.
We hope to see you at the playoffs and championships. Our understanding is there will be an admission charge, but it is unknown what that is.
