By TIM IRVING
“Every year, Pittsford-Victor games are great games, our record, their record doesn’t matter, they’re gonna be great games.”
Victor hockey coach Mike Ferreri got exactly what he expected, his Blue Devils broke a 1-1 third period tie and held on for a 4-2 victory Tuesday at Bill Gray’s Ice Plex over the Panthers.
For two periods, the game was a battle of defense and goalies. Victor’s Max Pitts and Pittsford’s Aden Brown matching saves, and making them all except for one.
The Blue Devils on a power play late in the first period, Simon Kowal skated up the right side and had his shot hit a defenseman’s skate, bouncing right back to him. With Brown screened, Kowal scored for a 1-0 lead.
2:24 into the third, the Panthers found themselves on a power play, Lucas Procious shot from the right point to tie the game at one.
Victor turned it up from there and five minutes later, Kowal got the puck on the right side and fired over the shoulder of Brown for a 2-1 lead.
“I was watching him in warm-ups and I thought he was a little slow up, with the blocker and finally just found it, “ Kowal said.
48 seconds later, Michael Peluso’s shot from the point made it 3-1 Victor.
“They didn’t stop. We took the momentum right back, right away and kept coming at them,” Ferreri said.
Almost three minutes later, Aiden Beal got to a puck along the back boards and flipped it to Jackson Guck, who made the score 4-1.
Will Masaschi scored on a 5-on-3 power play to cut the lead to 4-2 but that was as close as they got.
Brown stopped 34 shots for the Panthers and Pitts 28 for the third-ranked Class A teams in the State Blue Devils (12-1-2), who were coming off their first loss of the season against number two Orchard Park Saturday afternoon.
“We needed that win right there. It’s gonna give us the momentum we need to finish the season and into sectionals,” Kowal said.
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