Brockport and Churchville-Chili both advanced to the Section V Class B semi-finals with quarterfinal wins over Geneseo and Aquinas respectively before losing tight affairs in the semi-finals played at RIT’s Gene Polisseni Center.
Brockport dropped a 5-3 decision to Canandaigua while Churchville-Chili fell to Webster-Thomas 3-2.
In the first semi-final, Brockport jumped out to a 1-0 lead at 4:12 of the first period as Andrew Harley picked up the puck at center ice and dashed down the right wing before his snapper from 15 feet out found the back of the net.
Two minutes later Blue Devils goaltender Liam Schreiner made three-point blank saves before Canandaigua was able to tie the game at 1-1 with a power play goal by Alex Burley at 10:01.
Burley scored twice more over the first 4:17 of the second to complete his natural hat trick to extend the Braves lead to 3-1. But Harley scored his second of the game with only three seconds remaining on a power play with an unassisted wraparound goal at 9:35.
The Braves netted what would prove to be the game winner at 4:49 of the third as an Evan best backhand to the short side snuck under the goalie’s blocker pad to make it 4-2.
But the Blue Devils again closed to within one of the lead as freshman Austin Ennis centered a feed to Peyton Young, who scored on a wrist shot at 7:17.
Less than one minute later Young hit the goal post on another opportunity and, with the goalie pulled for the final 90 seconds of regulation, both Matthew Gemerek and Tucker Trask had point-blank shots stopped by Canandaigua net-minder Noah Schwartz.
The Braves scored on a lengthy empty net shot with 27 seconds remaining to seal the win.
“I said yesterday that it was going to come to our two best players and goalie against theirs and their goalie played exceptionally well in the third and that was the difference,” Brockport head coach Greg Stahl said. “We’ve been surviving these games and winning 7-4, but today we couldn’t get to the seven.
Game two featured Webster-Thomas jumping out to a 2-0 first period lead with two even strength goals just 89 seconds apart by Cade Spencer and Tommy Ammon.
But the Saints returned volley off the ensuing faceoff as Spencer Quinn scored unassisted as he handcuffed the goalie under the blocker pad to make it 2-1.
After a scoreless second period thanks to Saints goaltender Nick Anderson’s save on a breakaway at the buzzer, Thomas retook a two goal advantage as Zachary Olsen fed Mitchell Marsh after winning an offensive zone draw at 11:19 of the third.
Awarded a late power play Churchville-Chili defenseman Mathias Horvath put his shot from the right point into the upper right corner after a pass from Brandon Clark at 12:40.
With the goaltender pulled for the extra attacker in the final minute, Saints forward Jordan Alves had his redirect from the high slot stopped and the Saints could not get the equalizer.
“They came out fired up,” Saints head coach Brian Young said. “They were down a bunch of guys on the roster and I’ve been in that situation as a coach and I know how the team can step up behind them. We had the luxury of relying on the guys who have been going for us all year and they didn’t have that, but they found some energy out of that.
“I told them after the first (period) that we need to make sure we settle in and make sure we’re making the right plays and not giving the puck away too much. We came out and responded well.”
