hockey

As they have done for who knows how many years -- the couple of guys I talked to didn't seem to know -- a group of friends met in Williams Park this morning for their annual Boxing Day street hockey match.

In hockey today at Falleti Ice Arena, Notre Dame beat Batavia 3-0.

It's the first of three meetings this season between the two rivals.

Goals were scored by Peter Madafferi and Spencer Misiak, who scored twice.

Top photo: Notre Dame's first goal in the net.

To purchase prints, click here.

Information from Holly Eschberger:

The Firland Flyers, a Mite Level travel hockey team out of Batavia, NY, took to the road last weekend to play in the 2014 Mullins Mite Madness Tournament in Amherst, Mass., on the uMass campus! The Firland Flyers, the only NY team in the tournament, faced teams from Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont and took 3rd place overall. Earlier this year, The Firland Flyers took 1st place at the Lakeshore Tournament in Greece and placed 3rd in their division at The Pepsi Tournament in Buffalo.

The 2013/2014 season was the inaugural year for The Flyers and the 2014 Mullins Mite Madness Tourney was their last outing as a team. Some of the players will move on to play at the Squirt level; others will continue to play as Mites.

The Flyers team is led by Coach Kevin Hamilton, Coach Fred Hamilton, Coach Dan Hudson and Assistant Coaches Jeff Whitcombe, Ryan Whitcombe and Joe Eschberger, managed by Bob Johnson.

The Firland Flyers Team is made up of 7- and 8-year-olds from Alexander, Batavia, Le Roy, Oakfield and Pavilion. Congratulations to Bronx Buchholz, Mason Cook, Chase Cummings, Joe DiRisio, Will Eschberger, Cooper Hamilton, Ryan Hamilton, Noah Hudson, Alex Johnson, Jameson Motyka, Greg Narburgh, Brennan Pederson, Mac Wormley and Noah Whitcombe on a successful, memorable and FUN season!

The 2014 Men's League champions are the Blues. The Blues doused the Flames 2-1, the winning goal coming 38 seconds left in regulation on a goal by Brandon Pisano. The Blues championship last year put the tournament cup in the hands of Charlie O'Geen (center), one of the league founders, for the first time in 36 years.

The T.F. Brown's Squirt III Batavia Ramparts Hockey Team garnered silver medals at the Empire State Winter Games held Olympic Center in Lake Placid this weekend.

Batavia was the #1 seed going into the final rounds after winning their first three games. They lost the gold medal round to the Rye Rangers.

Pictured are Head Coach Jeff Bower, Assistant Coach Brian Frieday and players Drew Bower, Vincent DiRizio, Matthew Frieday, Levi Grimm, Zachary Howard, Austin Hunt, Collin Kratz, Chase Pangrazio, Dominic Peracciny, Connor Peterson, Eric Pfalzer, Sean Pies, Jace Rademacker, and Max Tenney.

Photo and information submitted by Robert Grimm.

The T.F. Brown's Batavia Ramparts Squirt III Hockey Team is participating in the Empire State Winter Games, being held Feb. 6 through 9 in Lake Placid. The team posed for a picture prior to lining up for the opening ceremonies at the Olympic Center. They will play four games with a chance to win gold, silver or bronze medals. The Ramparts are the Western Region representative in this invitational tournament.

Information and photo submitted by Robert Grimm.

The month of January has been a nightmare for the Notre Dame Hockey Team, but yesterday afternoon it may have woken up as the players defeated Batavia/Alexander, 2-1.

The Fighting Irish came into the contest just 1-4 this month, and had lost four straight by a combined score of 28 to 4. But, the win against crosstown rival Batavia/Alexander is a step in the right direction.

“We’ve been struggling recently,” said Notre Dame Head Coach Marc Staley. “We had two good practices getting prepared for this. We felt that we had hit rock bottom and the good thing about rock bottom is that you’re done falling. We thought we would come out and play a good game tonight.”

Notre Dame came out fast in the first period, controlling play for the majority of the period before Spencer Misiak pounced on a loose puck and put it by Blue Devil goaltender James Cryer 7:25 into the game.

“We wanted to focus on puck possession,” Staley said. “I thought we did a great job of that in the first period. We wanted to wear their defense down. The more we kept the puck down low, the more we can keep it out off of the stick of guys like Rich Francis.”

Just like the Irish did to start the game, Batavia/Alexander came out fast in the second period and their leading scorer, Francis, was able to get loose.

Francis picked up a nice pass from Julien Schimley and deked out goaltender Tyler Stroud for his 10th goal of the season.

“I think we had a little letdown in the second period,” Staley said. “But we also had three penalties called against us in the period, so that took a little steam out of us. We got focused again after the second period and righted the ship.”

The Irish would strike again on what would be the game-winner as Kevin Moscicki blasted a shot from the point that got through less than two minutes into the third period.

The Notre Dame defense did the rest of the work as Stroud stood tall in goal, making 19 saves on the night.

“Moscicki did a great job just getting it through to the net,” Staley said. “This game against Batavia is always that way. It’s one bounce or another and it ended up bouncing our way tonight.”

Cryer faced a barrage of shots all night, stopping 32 of 34 shots on the night for Batavia/Alexander (4-9-0).

“A win is always important,” Staley said. “We needed a win at this time of the year just to lift the spirits in the locker room.”

Notre Dame improves to 5-9-1.

Through 36 years in the league, the entire history of the league, Charlie O'Geen has never held the Batavia Men's Hockey League Championship Cup.

Today he did.

His son, Brian, a teammate, along with other teammates on the Genesee Orthopedic Blues, carried the cup to him after their 4-3 over the Max Pies Jets.

O'Geen is layed up in a hospital in Buffalo.

"I so wish he could be here," Brian said. "I was in tears last night  because I was afraid this was going to happen and he wasn’t going to be here."

The Blues jumped out to a 4-0 lead. The Jets fought back, but could never notch that final goal to tie it up.

"We got on them early," said Jeff Rauter, standing in for O'Geen as team captain. "We played a little physical. They like to play physical, so it makes the game go faster. They've got some good players on the team and we just contained them."

To purchase prints of the photos, click here.

The Batavia Ramparts Squirt III hockey this week won the 2012-2013 Western New York amateur hockey league championship.

Photo submitted by Robert Grimm.

Twenty-four boys and girls ages 4-9 came out for a 'Try Hockey' event today at Falleti Ice Arena. The free event gave kids a chance to skate around, hit pucks with sticks and learn a little about the game.

Above, four-year-old Matthew Kosiorek.

Claire Pfalzer describes her husband Andrew as "hockey crazy." For the past six years, he's had his own ice rink next to their home on Sliker Road in Pembroke.

Last year, it was cold enough to use the rink for only five or six days all winter.

This year's cold snap was well timed to allow the Pfalzers to invite all of their friends over for a daylong skate on Andrew's birthday. Andrew even has lights installed above the rink so the sun going down doesn't mean the end of hockey.

To purchase prints: These photos along with some others from the ice rink today (along with other Saturday photos) are in this gallery (click here).