Photos and Story by Janet Schultz. No photos may be copied, shared or reproduced without permission of Janet@nyhockeyonline.com.

Section VI’s Clarence/Amherst/Sweet Home (CASH) took the NYSPHSAA Far West Regional Championship to advance to the NYS Regional Championship this weekend (Feb. 20/21). They beat the Webster Lakers 2-1 in a face-paced game.

CASH opened the scoring in the first when Kiley Breeze got one past Webster’s Mia Wambach at 4:28 of the first, assisted by Captain Jenny Wild. First period ends in CASH’s favor.

CASH adds another one in the second at 10:58, an unassisted goal by Wild. CASH is up 2-0 going into the third.

With just 1:49 left in the third period, Webster’s Kenzie Beale gets one by Ella Celej, assisted by Viv Kinkead. Webster continued the pressure until the whistle was blown and CASH wins 2-1.

In goal Celej stopped 25 of 26 shots for CASH and Wambach faced 18.

The States look like this.

CASH will face Section X Potsdam on Friday at 3 p.m.

At 5 p.m. Section III Skaneateles faces Section II Adirondack

The winner of those two games will advance to the finals.

This will be CASH’s first appearance at the State Championship. 

Potsdam has taken the Championship once, in 2014. That year they declared Co-Champions along with Skaneateles after four overtimes and a 2-2 tie.

Skaneateles has taken the title five times, including the Co-win; Adirondack twice.

Our WNYGVIH teams, Williamsville won the title in 2019 and Frontier/Orchard Park in 2018. Kenmore/Grand Island (before Lockport) has also appeared in the semi-finals. 

The NYS Championship is considered Regional because not every Section in the NYSPHSAA has a girls varsity ice hockey team to compete. The Tournament was started in 2005-06.

Photo Album, all photos property of NYHOL/Janet Schultz©

By Janet Schultz

Photos by Janet Schultz© All rights reserved, for copy/purchase information email Janet@nyhockeyonline.com

History was made when Clarence/Amherst/Sweet Home took the Section VI championship in the WNYGVIH Federation. Up until this time the schools that have won were Frontier/Orchard Park/LakeShore (4), Kenmore/Grand Island/Lockport (8) and Williamsville (3). 

CASH compiled a 13 win, 2 loss and 1 tie record this season. Their goaltending has been very strong in Ella Celej with 724.42 minutes in the net during regular season play and a .943 save percentage after facing 370 shots and stopping 349.  Jenny Wild, the Captain, has made her mark in scoring with11 goals and 12 assists followed by Kiley Breeze, 15 goals/3 assists and Cece Watson, 6 goals/10 assists. 

Their opponent was no easy one. Lancaster/Iroquois/Depew/Alden had the league’s top scorer in Leah Dowling with 24 goals and 17 assists during the regular season. She has added to that in the playoffs and championship game. They also had Brynn Cafferty with 13 goals/17 assists and Caitlin Sinclair who was consistent in her assists with 21 on the season, along with 4 goals. Emily Lysiak also fits that category with 9 goals and 14 assists. Like CASH’s Celej, Iris Schimenti was LIDA’s only goaltender facing 678.68 minutes in net and stopping 278 of 314 goals. 

So they hit the ice at the Buffalo State University Arena on Monday night. CASH made their mark at 1:44 of the first when Mila Dominik got the first goal past Schimenti, assisted by Jenny Wild and Cece Bizub. LIDA answered right back at 2:32 when Leah Dowling made her mark, assisted by Layla Osinski and Claire Whiteford.   Then it was CASH to close out the period with two goals by Kiley Breeze, one unassisted and the second had some help from Lyla Kinney and Celia Watson. First period ends 3-1.

LIDA opens the second period with a power play goal by Whiteford, assisted by Dowling. CASH answers back when Wild scores on a shorthanded goal, assisted by Dominik. C. Bizub scores what turns out to be the game-winner, assisted by Dominik. Second period ends 5-2 CASH.

LIDA came out in the third and scored two more goals, giving everyone a nail-biting third. Dowling scored, assisted by Sinclair and Lucia Lawrence and Hailey Muff scored assisted by Emily Rodriquez. Game ends 5-4 in favor of CASH.

Celej faced 48 shots, stopping 44 and Schimenti stopped 16 of 21.

CASH moves on to face Webster in the WNY Regional Championship on Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 6 p.m. at the Buffalo State University Arena. Tickets are required, go to the WNY Girls Varsity Ice Hockey Facebook page for a link to the ticketing. It is also on NYHOL’s Facebook page, just scroll down a bit.

The winner of the Webster/CASH game then moves on to the NYS Championship semi-finals. This year the NYS Championship series will be held at the Utica Nexus Center, February 20-21. Tickets are required and we will provide that information as soon as we can.

by Janet Schultz, NYHOL

Photos by Janet© and property of NYHOL. For copies please email Janet@nyhockeyonline.com

St. Mary’s of Lancaster opened their 2025-26 season with a 4-2 victory over Monsignor Martin on home ice. They ended in fifth place in the WNYGVIH Federation league and a #1 seed for the playoffs. St. Mary’s and Monsignor Martin are not allowed to play in the WNYGVIH Sectional playoffs, so a separate Championship was set up for the two Private School teams. Thus, always it will be St. Mary’s and Monsignor Martin, each one battling for that #1 seed. St. Mary’s had a 10 win; 6 loss season and Monsignor Martin 2 wins, 12 losses and 2 ties.

The teams took to the ice Monday night at Buffalo State University (College) Arena. In goal for St. Mary’s was Betsy Accurso and for Monsignor Martin, Grace Elliott. Both goalies have seen lots of action this year with Accurso playing 718 minutes and Elliott facing 202 shots.

St. Mary’s Shea Hall got on the boards first, an unassisted goal just under four minutes into the first period. Avery Szczesek dropped in her first two of the night and first period ended 3-0 in favor of St. Mary’s Meghan Donnelly had the assists on both Szczesek’s goals. 

No scoring in the second period with St Mary’s having 11 shots-on-goal and Monsignor Martin with three.

Monsignor Martin’s Ellie Black opened the scoring for Monsignor Martin almost two minutes in, on an assist by Isabella Kosich. It proved to be the only MonMar goal of the night. St. Mary’s answers back with three more goals. Sophia Quinn gets one, assisted by Lauren Gilano and Olivia Salamone; a third goal by Szczesek for her hat trick, short-handed; assisted by Hall and the final one by Brynn Karan, assisted by Szczesek.

The game ends 6-1 with Accurso stopping 11 of 12 and Elliott stopping 45 of 51.

Photos and Story by Janet Schultz©, NYHOL. All photos property of Janet Schultz and cannot be used without permission. Email Janet@nyhockeyonline.com.

CASH opened scoring in the first game of the WNYGVIH Section VI semi-finals. Jenny Wild dropped in an unassisted goal just five minutes into the game. First period ended 1-0.

FLOP answered back 38 seconds into the second period when Peyton Forcucci got her first point of the night, assisted by sister Brooklyn and Hannah Favata. Then it was CASH securing a 2-1 end to the second when Polina Stremiakova scored, assisted by Maya Adimey and Emma Elnicky.

A no goal and penalities were the feature of the third until with just 3:40 left Kiley Breezed scored a short-handed goal, assisted by Adimey. Not be be outdone FLOP answered back with 20 seconds left and scored their second goal. Jocelyn Smaczniak got one past Ella Celej, assisted by Peyton Forcucci. The period ends 3-2 and CASH moves to the finals.

Rachael Fix stopped 24 of 27 shots for FLOP and Celej faced 30.

Game two of the semi-finals took two overtimes to have a winner declared as HEWS took on LIDA.

It started when HEWS put in a goal halfway through the first off the stick of Sophia Phillips, assisted by Morgan Cooper. First period ends 1-0 HEWS and with penalty minutes.

Second period opens with left-over penalty minutes and another one added. That set LIDA up for a powerplay goal by Emily Lysiak, assisted by Claire Whiteford and Leah Dowling. Second period ends with another penalty and a 1-1 tie.

Third period is back and forth with chances for both teams to score and Goalies Ella Buczynski and Iris Schimenti keeping out 8 shots each. Still a 1-1 tie at the end of the third.

Diving into Overtime #1 and again the Goalies do their thing and another period ends with a penalty.

Overtime #2 opened with left-over penalty minutes and another one added. At 4:52 LIDA’s Lysiak makes another shot on goal and it goes in, assisted by Whiteford. It was back and forth until the end, with Goalies doing their thing and the period ends at 10:08, 2-1 in favor of LIDA.

LIDA moves on to face CASH in the Section VI Championship on Monday, February 16 at 8 pm. at Buffalo State University (Buffalo State College) Arena. This is the first time Section VI will have a new champion. Since the beginning of the League in 2010, it has been FLOP, KenGiPort, or Williamsville taking the titles. Same goes for the Past Federation Champs which include the above plus Monsignor Martin.

The Private School Championship pitting St. Mary’s of Lancaster against Monsignor Martin will be played at 6 p.m.

There is an admission fee, links can be found on the WNYGVIH Facebook page.

In the State, Adirondack will be heading the the NYS Championship for the fourth consecutive time after defeating the East Wave in a Sectional playoff. Skaneateles is playing Oswego to determine which of those teams move on. The fourth determinating game is Potsdam vs Massena being played today (Feb. 14).

Photo Gallery by Janet Schultz©

Story and Photos by Janet Schultz©, NYHOL

All photos property of NYHOL. Permission for usage must be made by contacting Janet@nyhockeyonline.com.

The third game of the WNYGVIH Federation Quarterfinals pitted KenGiPort against FLOP. FLOP came out on top 3-1 to advance to the semi-finals on Thursday.

FLOP opened the scoring at 5:44 of the first period when Sabrina Basamania, assisted by Hannah Favata scored. It remained 1-0 through the end of the first.

FLOP secured a second goal in the second period with Jocelyn Smaczniak scoring, assisted by Lila Bell and Brooklyn Forcucci. This was the game-winner and the second ends 2-0.

With just over two minutes left in the third, FLOP got on the boards again as Peyton Forcucci dropped the puck into the empty net. It seemed this would be the end. Not happening. With 57.3 seconds left, KenGiPort’s Alexa Denning got one past Rachael Fix on an assist by Teagan Willats and Savanna Shaft.

Fix faced 24 shots on goal for FLOP and KenGiPort’s Ella Johnston stopped 19 of 21.

This sets the seeding for the Semi-Finals with FLOP at number 2 facing #1 CASH and #3 HEWS facing #4 LIDA.

Editor’s Note: While I tend not to commentate on our games, this one was exciting, the goaltenders were outstanding at both ends and there were some amazing shots-on-goal that didn’t make it past the goaltenders.

HEWS will move to the semi-finals after defeating Williamsville 8-3 last evening at the Buffalo State University Arena.

HEWS got on the boards first with an unassisted goal by MacKenzie Benker. Adding three more right after were Brynn Holland, assisted by Liliana Smardz; Sophia Phillips, unassisted and Kylie Wegrzynowski, assisted by Morgan Cooper and Benker. First period ends 4-0.

Williamsville’s Gen Illios put a goal in to start off the second period, assisted by Allison Besancon and Megan Loretz. HEWS answered back with two goals; one by Smardz and Phillips and then Allie Schmirl had one heading in and then out and then finally in, assisted by Ellie Grabowski. Williamsville closes out the second period with a goal by Besancon, assisted by Addison Stachura and second closes at 6-2 in favor of HEWS.

Third period it was HEWS on board first with a goal by Phillips, assisted by Brynn Holland and Megan Cooper. Williamsville answers back as Illios gets one past Ella Buczynski, assisted by Anna Meyer and Besancon. HEWS answers that with another goal by Holland, unassisted. That ends the game with HEWS at 8-3 and moving to the semi-finals.

Buczynski stops 8 of 11 for the win and Anna Bacon stopped 22 of 30 for Williamsville.

Photo Album by Janet Schultz©, NYHOL. Photos cannot be used without permission of Janet@nyhockeyonline.com.

Photos and Story by Janet Schultz,© NYHOL

The WNYGVIH League opened their 16th Quarterfinals at Buffalo State University’s Arena on Tuesday (Feb. 10) evening with three games. First up was #2 seeded Lancaster/Iroquois/Depew/Alden against #7 seed Niagara County Lady Warriors. It was a 9-0 shutout for LIDA over the struggling Niagara County team.

Mia Hauser got on the boards first at 2:16 of the first period, on an assist by Claire Whiteford. Then it was two goals by Hailey Muff, and the others by Emily Lysiak, Brynn Cafferty, Lucia Lawrence and Whiteford to end the first period 7-0. Credited with assists in that period were Leah Dowling, Natalie Domagala, Layla Osinski, Leah Sacco, Caitlin Sinclair and Lysiak.

Second period opened to a running clock after Grace Leonardi, assisted by Sinclair added the 8th goal. The ninth was scored by Cafferty, assisted by Sinclair and Dowling. The running clock continues into the third, which was scoreless. Iris Schimenti stopped 14 shots for the shut-out win and NICO’s Lila Jones stoped 13 of 22.

LIDA moves on to the semi-finals as Seed #2, facing Seed #3 Hamburg/Eden/West Seneca.

Our best to NICO Assistant Coach Shawn Latini as he retires as a coach.

WNYGVIH Photo Gallery by Janet Schultz©, photographer, NYHOL. All rights reserved and no photos may be used with permission of Janet@nyhockeyonline.com.