Submitted Photo The Jamestown Lakers are pictured on the ice after beating Dunkirk/Fredonia at Northwest Arena in Jamestown on Saturday.
JAMESTOWN – A lot was on the line Saturday night when the Jamestown Raiders hosted the Dunkirk/Fredonia Steelers in a Western New York High School Club Hockey League playoff game at Northwest Arena.
This coming Friday night, the Raiders will be playing for more – in a much bigger venue.
Jamestown broke open a 2-1 game with a five-goal second period en route to a 10-2 win over the Steelers to wrap up their best-of three series.
The Raiders beat Dunkirk/Fredonia 5-3 on Tuesday at Steele Hall Ice Arena on the campus of Fredonia State University in the first game of the series.
Now Jamestown will play for the Mixed Division title Friday at KeyBank Center in Buffalo against Eden/Lake Shore/Pioneer/Springville, which beat Royalton-Hartland/Medina/Barker in another best-of-three series that ended Friday.
Ritter Coombs gave the Raiders a 3-1 lead just over a minute into the second period Saturday night when he picked up a loose puck in the slot and beat Dunkirk/Fredonia’s goaltender low to his glove side with a wrist shot.
The Steelers were the victims of some bad luck with just over 13 minutes remaining when Jamestown threw a puck in front of the net and it bounced off a Dunkirk/Fredonia player’s skate and into the net. Carson Olson was credited with the goal.
The Raiders’ Jameson Walsh then went to the penalty box for a tripping infraction with 6:28 remaining, but it was actually Jamestown that benefited. Coombs controlled the puck to the right of the Steelers’ goaltender and then slid a behind-the-back pass to Alex MacCallum, who calmly wristed the puck into the net for a 5-1 Raiders’ lead.
Spencer Bell added Jamestown’s sixth goal with a slap shot on the power play and Walsh was fortunate on the Raiders’ seventh goal when Dunkirk/Fredonia’s goaltender appeared to make the original save, but pulled the puck into his own net as he was trying to cover it up.
The Steelers got back on the board with 19.5 seconds left in the second period when Nolan Olson scored on a shorthanded breakaway.
Jamestown added three more goals in the third period.
First, Jed Hirliman made a pass into the slot from behind the net that was finished off by Griffin Bogdanowicz with 14:25 remaining.
A little over a minute later, Christian Wilshire threw a puck to the net that found its way past the Dunkirk/Fredonia goaltender.
Coombs scored his second goal of the night with just over 10 minutes remaining.
MacCallum opened the scoring less than four minutes into the game when he took possession of a deflected shot from teammate Cameron Lemk at the side of the net and scored his sixth goal of the season.
The Steelers tied the game just over two minutes later on a nice give-and-go between Nate Sercu and Alexander Paluch that finished with Sercu tallying his third goal of the season.
Jamestown regained the lead when Bell threw the puck in front of the Dunkirk/Fredonia goal and it was banged in by Walsh with 1:16 left in the period.
NOTES: MacCallum, Walsh and Coombs each had two goals while Olson, Bell, Bogdanowicz and Wilshire each had one. Bell, Payton Dustin and Lucas Gilbert each had two assists while Lucas Lisciandro, Lemk, Olson, MacCallum, Coombs, Walsh and Hirliman each had one. … Jackson Roth was in net for Jamestown. … MacCallum had two goals while Coombs, Bogdanowicz and Olson also scored in Tuesday’s 5-3 win for Jamestown. Coombs had two assists while Dustin, Bell and Gilbert each had one. … Paluch had two goals and Joshua Cooper had one for Dunkirk/Fredonia. Trevor Persch, Kameron Mages, Simon Davis and Sercu each had one assist.