C-C student in state hockey tournament

The Buffalo Bison Youth Hockey Association will be hosting the NYS Amateur Hockey Association's Girls Under-15 Tier 1 State Championship Tournament. The event is being held at the Dann Memorial Rink at the Nichols School (Buffalo) on March 15 through 17.

Eight teams from throughout New York state will be competing for the state championship; the winning squad will represent New York state at the USA Hockey Nationals being held in Anchorage, Alaska beginning on April 3. The Bison's own U-15 Girls team is the defending state champion and last year was the NYS representative at the National Championships in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Members of the Bison's team come from throughout the Buffalo area, and include three Rochester area girls. They are Morgan Beikirch of Livonia, Lindsay Pegler of Churchville-Chili, and Brittany Salmon of Batavia.

During the regular season the team plays in the Southwest Ontario Girls Hockey League, in which it finished in first place. A number of the members of the team were on the Gold Medal Western Team in the Empire State Games this past summer. Several of the team members also play on high school boys teams.

Other teams coming to the tournament are from Rochester, Syracuse, Ithaca, Troy-Albany, Adirondack, NYC area, and Plattsburg. Each team plays three games over Friday and Saturday in a preliminary round, after which the field is reduced to four teams. Semifinals are Sunday morning, with the championship game on Sunday afternoon, March 17.