Monsignor Martin’s girls hockey team set up a run at West Seneca’s status as top dog in the Federation standings Thursday by winning its second game in as many Thursdays, 5-2, to take the season series.

West Seneca, which held a one-point advantage in the team standings as of press time, fought hard to keep the game tied through most of the first two periods, with Nikki Kirchberger scoring both of West Seneca’s goals — including the first of the game, on the power play about five minutes into the game, to give West Seneca its only lead, 1-0.

Monsignor Martin took the momentum away from West Seneca with a goal from the point with just three minutes to play in the second period, though, and a penalty early in the third period proved to be extremely costly as Monsignor Martin converted on the power play to push its advantage to two goals, 4-2. Monsignor Martin added one final goal with about two minutes to play in regulation to seal the victory, which could come back to haunt West Seneca should the two teams finish tied at the end of the regular season.

“We made a couple of adjustments early on from how we played them the week before, and they were working quite well,” coach Peter Tonsoline said. “We had some good chances in the third, but I think our frustration took over a little bit and got us into some penalty trouble. A couple of breaks here or there, though, and it would’ve been a little closer. They just did a good job of exploiting our mistakes.”

Sydney Glynn finished the game with 25 saves in net.

West Seneca, playing its second consecutive week with a brutally compacted schedule, enjoyed more success against Orchard Park/Frontier, as it earned a pair of wins by a combined 9-3 margin.

West Seneca finished January 17’s 6-3 win with a 32-16 shots advantage, which was part of the reason it jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period. Jenna Lettieri, Erin Gehen and Kirchberger all scored to set the game’s tone early, with assists going to Jill Schrader and Molly Sikorski.

Kristen Sikorski tacked on West Seneca’s only goal of the second period, off a pass from Schrader, to give West Seneca a 4-1 lead. Gehen and Kirchberger closed out the scoring with their third-period goals, which came off passes from Emily O’Shei and Gehen, respectively.

Alyssa Gates turned aside 13 shots to earn the win between the pipes.

Glynn, meanwhile, needed just 15 stops to earn the shutout in Friday’s 3-0 victory, which proved to be a little tougher to earn as OP/Frontier kept West Seneca off the scoreboard until the second period.

Kirchberger finished the game with two goals for the victors, while Molly Sikorski added the third.

“Orchard Park/Frontier played very well against us in both games, but especially in Friday’s game,” Tonsoline said. “That was probably one of our more solid games this year, though. Sydney made some key saves to keep them off the scoreboard.”

West Seneca (11-2 overall) returned to action Wednesday against Kenmore, but information about that contest was not available at press time. The team closes out its week Friday by taking on Lancaster.

“We just need to make sure we’re adjusting on the ice a little better to what teams are doing to us,” Tonsoline said. “If we can do that, it’ll make a big difference in how we perform moving forward. if we come to play every game, there’s no reason why we can’t sweep the rest of our schedule. We’re going to need some scoring from girls other than our top two, and we’re also going to need to keep getting solid goaltending.”