After a big win Friday night, the Niagara Falls PowerHawks came up against a team in the middle of a playoff fight when they played a pair of games against the visiting Oswego Stampede Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Oswego skated away with 3-1 and 6-5 wins on the weekend, and moved two points ahead of the Skylands Kings for third place in the Northeast Division.
In Saturday’s tilt, Oswego jumped out to a lead with the only goals of each the first and second periods. Tommy Kilway gave the Stampede a 1-0 lead at 12:05 of the first period with an unassisted tally. Eddie Cannon added his own unassisted tally at 10:34 of the second period.
Andrew Logar put the PowerHawks on the board with a power play goal at 13:55 of the third period. Kurt Villani and Evan Domiano had assists on the marker. Kilway iced it away for the Stampede with a shorthanded, empty net goal with 21 seconds left in the game.
Steven Kozikoski turned away 48 of 49 shots faced while picking up the win. Kris Augustine stopped 22 of 24 shots in the loss for the PowerHawks.
Eddie Cannon opened the scoring for Oswego on Sunday with a goal at 4:31 of the first period. Tommy Kilway and Griffin Briquelet assisted. Andrew Logar tied the game on the power play at 14:46 with Matthew Minichiello and Branden Tripi providing the assists.
Niagara Falls took their first lead of the day with Michael Olszewski netting one only 22 seconds into the second period. Josh Kalinowski assisted. Then Oswego took over for the rest of the period. Dylan Gulick tied the game at 1:42, with the assist coming from Cannon.
Oswego regained the lead when Jameson Simmonds scored at 4:59. Josh Wallace provided the assist. Gulick scored for the second time in the period with a power play goal at 7:36. Dimtri Christou assisted. Tommy Kilway scored another power play goal, unassisted, with only 27 seconds left in the period. The Oswego Stampede skated into the second intermission with a 5-2 lead.
Andrew Logar started the comeback for the PowerHawks with his second power play goal of the game. Frankie Bodami and Kurt Villani assisted. Niagara Falls continued to chip away at the Oswego lead with a goal by Matthew Minichiello at 15:08. His brother, Stephen provided the assist. Sixteen seconds later, the PowerHawks tied the game off the stick of Andrew Logar. Bodami and Villani assisted on Logar’s hat trick. Tommy Kilway salted away the victory with an empty net goal at 16:45, assisted by Rich Hart.
Ben White was able to turn away 32 of 37 shots faced in the victory for the Stampede. Carson Gates stopped 14 of 19 shots during the first two periods before being replaced by Josh Mitchell at the start of the third period. Mitchell made 4 saves on as many shots.
The Niagara Falls PowerHawks will be traveling to Oswego for a Tuesday night matchup against the Stampede. They will then head to New Jersey for a pair of games against the Skylands Kings on February 18th and 19th. They will finish their regular season home schedule on February 23rd with a game against the Southern Tier Xpress.