Girls Hockey Showcased in Buffalo

For the first time in its history the Scotty Bowman Showcase will feature a 20 minute girl's ice hockey game. The Tournament pits top high school boys players from Buffalo against top players from Rochester. The tournament honors Scotty Bowman, the winningest coach in the NHL who coached the Buffalo Sabres.

This year girls from local Buffalo club ice hockey teams will compete to show their support for a Girls Varsity Ice Hockey League in Western New York

The Scotty Bowman Showcase will be held Monday, March 29, at HSBC Arena, Buffalo. The first boys game begins at 6 p.m. and the second at 8:30 p.m. The winner of the second game is the recipient of the Bowman Cup.
Admission is $5.

There is also a possibility that the Buffalo Regals will form a new Girls 14U team next season and the Niagara Junior Purple Eagles may try and move to Tier I.

The Niagara Junior Purple Eagles 14U Tier II team took the New York State Championships last weekend. They went into the championship game undefeated with 21 goals for and 1 goal against for an amazing 5 game shutout run. They will represent New York State at the Nationals in East Lansing, MI in April.

The Buffalo Bisons U12, U14 and U16 Tier I teams also won New York State Championships. They will also be representing NYS in the Nationals.

Congratulations goes to Mercyhurst's Vicki Bendus. Bendus is the recipient of the 2010 Patty Kaxzmaier Memorial Award. The award is given annual to a female ice hockey player who shows outstanding athletic ability as well as leadership, community service and academics. She served as team captain and is near the top of the NCAA leader board in nearly all offensive categories. She has 65 points; 5 short-handed goals, averages 1.81 points per game, and is a RBK Hockey First Team All-American. Among her team statistics she was first in shots (194), tied for first in points (65) and shorthanded goals (5); second in goals (28), assists (37), power-play goals (8); tied for second in gasme-winning goals (5) and fourth in plus/miknues (+37). Off ice she volunteers regularly at the Erie Veterans Hospital and took part in the annual Mercyhurst Thanksgiving Food Drive.

It's Frozen Four Time

Western New York Girls Hockey will be featured for the first time during the Sixth Annual Scotty Bowman Showcase set for Sunday, March 29, at HSBC Arena in Buffalo, NY.

The Showcase consists of two all-star hockey games between high school aged boys players from Buffalo and their rivals from Rochester.

This year, with the strong effort in Western New York to ice a Varsity Girls Ice Hockey League next fall, there have been a number of showcase girl's games played. Thus a 20 minute Girls Showcase will be held between the boy's games and will feature some of the top local high school girl's players from the Buffalo area.

We urge support for both the boys and girls. Tickets are only $5 with the puck being dropped at 6 p.m. between the juniors followed by the girl's showcase game and an 8:30 p.m. game between the seniors.

Also a congratulations to the girl's teams from the Western New York area who took in the New York State Championships this past weekend. Girls from the Niagara Purple Eagles and Buffalo Bisons organizations registered wins. I'll have more on that as results come in.

The Frozen Four for women's ice hockey is upon us. The NCAA has announced the following will take part in the Fifth Annual Frozen Four Skills Challenge to be held April 9 at Ford Field in Detroit Michigan. The women's East squad will include Boston University's Melissa Anderson; Harvard's Anna McDonald, from Dartmouth, Sarah Parsons, Kelly Patron of New Hampshire, Britini Smith, St. Lawrence and Allie Thunstrom, Boston College. In goal will be Brittony Chartier, St. Lawrence and Melissa Haber, Boston University. From the West are Kelli Blankenship, Minnesota; Rachel Davis, Ohio State; Caitlin Hogan, St. Cloud State, Kyla Sanders, Wisconsin; Chelsea Walkland, Robert Morris and Ashley Young Minnesota State/Mankato. The two goalies are Lauren Bradel, St. Thomas/Minnesota and Lindsey Park, Wayne State.

The finalists for the 2010 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award are Vicki Bendus of Mercyhurst College. Kelly Paton, University of New Hampshire and Noora Raty, University of Minnesota.

The Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award is presented annual to an outstanding female hockey player who best exemplifies Patty Kazmaier. The criteria include outstanding individual and team skills, sportsmanship, performance in the clutch, personal character, competitiveness and the love of hockey. There is also consideration for academic achievement civic involvement.

Kazmaier was a four-year varsity letter winner and All-Ivy League defenseman for Princeton University from 1981 to 1986. She passed away in 1990 after a long struggle with a rare blood disease.

Team USA Under 18 Named

Getzville's Emily Pfalzer has been named to the 2010 U.S. Women's National Under 18 Team. The team will play in the 2010 IIHF World Women's Under-18 Championship. They will be playing Japan on Saturday, March 27 followed by Finland on Sunday; the Czech Republic on Tuesday followed by the quarterfinals, semi finals and medal games on Friday and Saturday. All games will be played at Walter Bush Arena in Woodridge, Ill. This is the first time this event will be played on U.S. soil.

Team USA captured the gold in Germany in 2009 and in Calgary in 2008. Highlighting the roster are Forward Kendall Coyne and Defenseman Meagan Mangene, both played for the Under-19 Team in those games. Other returnees to the squad include Brittany Ammerman, Lyndsey Fry, Amanda Pelkey, Taylor Wasylik and Alex Rigsby. They were all members of the 2009 U.S. Women's National Under 18 team also. Rigsby was named best goaltender of the 2009 tournament.

New to the team are Meghan Lorence, Aubree Moore and Jordan Slavin.

The balance of the team is made up of Aubres Moore, Gabie Figueroa, Marissa Gedman, Michelle Picard, Stephanie Anderson, Melissa Bizzari, Racheael Bona, Alexandra Carpenter, Zoe Hickel, Meghan Lorence and Haley Skarupa.

They will be coached by Katie King. Assisted by Catherine Hanson and Shelley Looney.

Girls Hockey

It's growing! Girls hockey that is. In WNY there is a move to have high school varsity hockey for girls. There currently are teams in Eastern New York State, which are too far to travel to on a regular basis; but a great way to have a playoff system in the State.

WNY needs five schools to begin a league in 2010. Thus far there are verbal commitments from Williamsville, Mgs. Martin Schools and Kenmore/Tonawanda. Several others are waiting to make decisions as their budget process moves forward.

The girl's, who play in leagues around the area, want the same chance as their brothers--to play for their school and enjoy school spirit. There have been six showcase games that showed the girls can play a great game, lots of action even though checking isn't allowed. They are fast skaters, good shooters and we've seen outstanding goaltending.

Urge your school boards to take a look at icing a team in WNY. Check out the Girls 4 Varsity Ice Hockey website for additional information.