BY JONATHAN SKUZA
HENRIETTA, N.Y.- -Your best players shine when you need them the most.
Jameson Motyka shined the brightest for Batavia Notre Dame as he tallied a hat trick and the overtime game-winner for the United as they defeated Kenmore East in the New York State Western Reginal round, 3-2.
Batavia Notre Dame had many scoring chances throughout the contest as they finished with 49 shots on net. Motyka’s game-winner came on a low-danger chance that squeaked by the Kenmore East goaltender.
The junior forward skated down the right side with speed and shot the puck near the goal line short side of the goaltender to crown the United the Division II NYSPHSAA Boys Ice Hockey Western Regional Champions.
”What I love about this team is it’s different guys on different nights,” Batavia Notre Dame’s head coach Marc Staley stated. “It’s a luxury as a coach when you’ve got a number of different weapons like that.”
The first period of the contest saw no scoring, but did see some scoring chances from the United as they were rewarded with two 5-on-3 power plays. Batavia Notre Dame was not successful on converting on either opportunity.
The struggles on the power play continued as they were not able to covert on their lone power play in the middle frame and the United finished 0-for-5 on the power play.
Kenmore East broke the stalemate just under three minutes into the period as Matt Rubin buried a rebound shot from Austin Turnbull to give the Bulldogs the lead.
Motyka buried home a rebound late in the period from a Sam Pies’ shot to tie the game for the United before heading into the second intermission. Noah Whitcombe chipped in with a helper on Motyka’s first tying goal.
Batavia Notre Dame’s struggles with special teams continued into the third period as Dylan McDonald ripped home a power play goal from the slot to regain the lead for Bulldogs.
”I can’t think of a game all year where we went 0-for-5 on the power play,” Staley stated about the special teams. “Typically when you lose the power play situation, you don’t normally have the result that we ended up getting tonight.”
The United never gave up as Motyka tied the contest up for a second time, banging home another rebound that made the Batavia Notre Dame side of the Gene Polisseni Center erupt with excitement with 1:48 to go in regulation. Brady Johnson and Whitcombe assisted on the big tying goal.
The team resilience from Batavia Notre Dame was the driving force to them finishing the job in overtime with Motyka’s unassisted third goal.
”That’s a big part of our team,” Motyka stated. “We’ve been down a couple times this year, but we always find a way to come back. We’re just that kind of team. We always gut it out.”
”Credit to the kids and being resilient and believing in each other and feeling they’re going to find a way to get it done,” Staley said.
The overtime victory was Batavia Notre Dame’s second within a six day span. The United had not played extra hockey all season long until this past week in the most two important contests of the season up to this point.
”We never played overtime besides for the finals and this regional game,” Motyka said. “We were kind of nervous at first, but we were confident the whole time so we decided to play our game and we came out on top both times.”
Batavia Notre Dame will travel to the LECOM Harborcenter Saturday, March 9, to take on the winner between Section V’s own Webster Thomas and Section III’s Skaneateles in the Division II NYSPHSAA Boys Ice Hockey semifinals.
“We will have a full week, which is good,” Staley stated about preparing for the contest. “We’ll get back to work on Monday and whoever it is, we’ll go from there. I think at this point of the year, a lot of this is just momentum and adrenaline that’s going to carry these kids forward.”
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