Churchville-Chili, Brockport and Spencerport all won their games on the final day of the first New York State high school hockey games played outdoors as part of the ten-day Frozen Frontier held December 13-22 at Frontier Field.
Junior Ryan Cosgrove netted a pair of shorthanded goals in the third period and senior defenseman Connor Hoyng had a goal with two assists to lead the Saints to a 5-0 victory over Batavia in the Sunday opener.
After a scoreless first period, Saints defenseman Michael Yehl roofed his shot over the glove of the goaltender at 5:33 for a 1-0 lead. Freshman Brian Nowicki assisted on the play.
In the final minute of the period, Hoyng walked in from his point position and rifled his shot into the net with assists from David Luciw and Tanner Metcalfe.
In the third, while killing a penalty, Cosgrove outskated the Batavia defense on a dump-out and scored five-hole for a 3-0 Saints lead. Four minutes later he scored another shorthanded goal on a wraparound with an assist by Hoyng.
The Saints finished the scoring at 9:33 of the third when sophomore defenseman Nick Kuszlyk beat the Batavia goaltender with a wrist shot from the point. Hoyng and Luciw assisted.
Kyle Wood and Tyler Phillips combined to make seven saves to earn the shutout.
“It was great,” said Cosgrove about the outdoor event. “The atmosphere, the ice was alright; everything was crazy. Play was a little slow, but we came out in the third, regrouped and came out with some fire and picked up the pace a little bit.”
“We’ve been looking forward to this for so long that you worry that it’s hyped up, that it’s too much for them and I think we saw a little of that in the first period,” said Saints head coach Brian Young.
Game two on Sunday pitted Brockport against Batavia Notre Dame with the Blue Devils emerging with a 4-1 win.
Junior forward Matt Roe came off the half-wall and scored short-side at 9:54 of the first period to stake Brockport to a 1-0 lead with assists from Brandon and Mitchell Henshaw.
“I saw the left side wide open,” said Roe. “It was a great experience playing outdoors in a big stadium.”
At 7:13 of the second period, Matt Rowell drew two defenders to him before centering a perfect pass which Dylan Sharpe slammed into the net for a 2-0 lead.
It became 3-0 at 12:42 on a wraparound shorthanded goal by Brandon Henshaw. In the third, after Notre Dame scored their only goal of the game, Kirby Trask netted his first goal of the season on a rebound with assists from Koby Dusett and Carlton Ekiyor.
Riley Emmerson and Anthony Begemann combined to make 24 saves in net for Brockport.
“It was a little different game because we tried to involve all 20 players and both goalies, but still help them understand that it was a division game that counted,” said Brockport head coach Greg Stahl.
The third Sunday contest featured Spencerport scoring six goals on only 20 shots and defeating Brighton 6-2.
Brandon Corey scored four goals and added an assist while Nicholas Charron and Jacob Cerretto each had four assists for the Rangers.
Corey scored on a wrist shot on Spencerport’s first shot-on-goal of the game at 6:08 of the first period. Cerretto made it 2-0 at 11:16 and, after Brighton scored to pull within one, Corey redirected a shot for a 3-1 lead at the end of the first period.
Brighton again pulled to within a goal early in the second period, but the Rangers responded just 26 seconds later as Corey put in his wrister from the left faceoff circle. At 14:43 of the second, defenseman Mason Besser threw a head-man pass up the left wing boards where Corey chased it down and scored to make it 5-2 Rangers after two periods.
Jackson Charron netted the only goal of the final 12 minutes on a rebound from Aidan Conolly and Besser for the 6-2 final.
Ryan Schirano and Dan Nichols combined for the win in the Rangers net.
“I’m sure it was on every coach’s mind that the kids would be too excited and expend all their energy early, so we really didn’t talk about this game at all until Friday and concentrated on the games we had,” said Spencerport head coach Jason Rich. “We talked about keeping it simple … and Brandon got loose and buried a couple for us and got us rolling.”
“It feels good,” said Corey after the game. “Going out and playing on a rink like that – great memories. Going out and putting some points up there was fun.”
Each high school paid $3,500 and each college team guaranteed 500 tickets would be sold for their game at $10 each. Ice time for groups and other games were sold at $1,500 for 75 minutes and included 30 Amerks and 30 Red Wings tickets.
In all, ten high school games were played over the final two days of activities that began with the Rochester Amerks win in a shootout on the first night, the RIT women and men playing the second night, Nazareth vs Geneseo, the Buffalo Jr. Sabres and a Sabres-Amerks alumni game on the third along with dozens of men’s league games, a pond hockey tournament and several open skates.
