The 2000 team braved the cold in Buffalo Presidents Day weekend to take home the Buffalo Super Series Championship.& The Royals went 2-1-1 in preliminary play to advance to the semifinals where they met one of their main rivals, Team Comcast.& The Royals jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first period and only a late goal broke up Derek Mullahy’s shutout bid en route to a 4-1 Royals win.& Derek finished with 33 saves on 34 shots.& & Brandon Cimino opened up the scoring for the Royals on a blast from the point,& assists to Ross Mitton and Robert Mastrosimone.& Ryan Colwell made it 2-0 with a shorthanded breakaway goal with assists to Freddy Ilias and Anthony Mastromonica.& Mastrosimone made it 3-0 going five hole off of some neat passing from Mitton and Jason Ruszkowski.& Ross Mitton finished the scoring for the Royals with an unassisted breakaway with a nasty dangle.
In the finals the Royals were up against the host Buffalo Jr. Sabres.& The teams tied 3-3 in the preliminary round with the Royals coming back from a 3-1 deficit.& The Sabres scored late in the first to grab a 1-0 lead.& The Sabres then grabbed a 2-0 lead early in the second before Ross Mitton cut it to 2-1 on a feed from Jason Ruszkowski.& The Sabres scored the next two to grab a 4-1 lead midway through the second.& To shake the team up, Coach Greig made a goalie change and put Alex Fowler in.& Alex had been very good in the preliminary round and was ready to go.& He made some tough early saves and the Royals found their legs.& & Zach Vlacich let a blast go from the point which deflected off of Hayden Fried’s ankle while he screened the goalie to make it 4-2.& With 20 seconds left in the second Hunter Wiedenkeller found a streaking Ruszkowski for a breakaway and he buried it to make it 4-3 before the second ended, seizing the momentum.& The Royals kept the pressure on the Sabres with 8 minutes left Vlacich found Mitton who fed Ruszkowski on the left wing and Ruszkowski snuck it in short side to tie it at 4.& With 4 minutes left Vlacich found Ryan Colwell who executed a great give and go with Mastrosimone before Colwell tapped it into the open net to give the Royals a 5-4 lead.& The Sabres battled back and pulled their goalie and Fowler continued to make saves but a centering pass toward an unfortunate bounce off a players skate into the net to tie it at 5 with 30 seconds left.& The game went to a three man shoot-out and the Sabres scored on their first shot but Ruszkowski was up to the task and buried his shot to make it 1-1 after the first round.& No one scored in rounds 2 and 3 as Fowler made some dazzling saves.& Now it went to single rounds and both goalies prevailed in round 4.& In round five Fowler snatched a glove save and Mastrosimone had a chance to win it and that’s just what he did.& Congratulations to the boys for a great weekend as they prepare for the AYHL playoffs, States and hopefully Nationals.