Hamburg, NT win in overtime

When it comes to overtime, the Hamburg Bulldogs would just like to avoid it as much as they can.

Their record in the extra period hasn’t been great all season-long, so when their playoff game against upstart Lewiston-Porter went into the extra session you could see the nervousness start to set in.

But, that was all forgotten when Graham Blair poked in the rebound off a shot from the point to give the Bulldogs a 4-3 double overtime win over Lewiston-Porter.

“With the new overtime this year, we haven’t had that luck either. We were 0-3-2 this year” stated Hamburg coach John McFall. “This is our first overtime win in six tries, so it felt good.”

It was a game that you could see was destined to head to overtime. Every time Hamburg would take the lead, and maybe control of the game, Lew-Port would battle back.

Hamburg held leads of 2-1 and 3-2 only to see the Lancers get that tying goal.

“At one point, I even lost track of the score there. With all those buttons out there, I thought we were down 3-2. That’s how the game went. The kids had to correct me, I was already to pull the goalie with three-minutes left,” explained McFall. “They hung on and we let them hang on. We did just enough to get it done and it was a battle between two evenly matched teams.”

Next up for the Bulldogs will be number one seed Kenmore East. And while they may seem like a daunting task, Hamburg has had success against Ken-East – defeating them the last three times they faced them, including a 6-4 win on Feb. 6.

“They are a hell of a hockey team,” stated McFall. They have some great individuals. Kyle (Pray) has them playing well as a team, but if we stay in their face and play tight. Play within our system then those individuals start to play as individuals and that’s the point that we are looking for. And we have been able to get them at that point. Once they stop playing as a team and they try to do it themselves then we know we have that chance. In a playoff game, it is any team at any time.”

Hamburg will take on Kenmore East at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Amherst Center.

Playoff roundup:

It just wasn’t Hamburg and Lew-Port that went the extra session, but Niagara Falls and North Tonawanda took extra time to see who would advance to the next round.

Steven Grosskopf scored his first goal of the season, with 2:50 left in overtime, as North Tonawanda defeated Niagara Falls, 4-3, in overtime.

North Tonawanda will now face number one seed Williamsville North at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Amherst Center.

Kenmore West advance to the next round with a workmanlike 6-2 over Lockport. Mike Coyne and Scott Lepovitch each had a goal and two assist in the win.

Kenmore West will take on second seed Niagara-Wheatfield at 9 p.m. Thursday at the Amherst Center.