West Seneca West’s hockey team will enter its crucial battle for the regular-season title with Williamsville East February 10 well rested, as the Indians will be idle for 10 days prior to the contest after defeating Grand Island Monday, 4-2.

West dominated play throughout the first two periods, but thanks to multiple pucks ringing off posts and crossbars, as well as shots sailing wide of Grand Island’s net, the Indians couldn’t pull away from a 2-2 tie. Fortunately, Tyler Chodkowski responded with a pair of goals in the third period to propel West to the victory.

Brendan Barren added a power-play goal in the first period, while John Danovskis chipped in with a goal and an assist. Matt Peccia stopped 15 shots to earn his 10th win of the season.

“The game was definitely closer than it would have been had we finished more of our chances,” coach Kevin Rozo said. “It was nice, though, to see Brendan and John step up; they’re a couple of the guys we definitely need down the stretch as we get into the playoffs. Brendan specifically is a kid who does everything right, so it’s nice to see him get on the score sheet.”

West went into Monday’s game riding high after burying Rochester’s McQuaid on the road Saturday, 4-1. Peccia earned his ninth win of the season, while Pat Ciancio scored two goals and assisted on the other two. Brendan Ebert and Brandon Bork (assist) added the other tallies for West, which led 3-0 after what Rozo called the team’s “best first period of the year.”

“I told the kids before the game that this wasn’t a team to pad our record with,” Rozo said. “We go as tough as we can with our non-league games to prepare for the postseason, and this weekend we earned a really good victory over a very good team. We’ve still got to play two of the top teams in our league, so it’s good to see that we show up when we’re playing against the best teams.”

West recent stretch began January 23 with a 4-1 win over Kenmore West. The Blue Devils actually surprised the Indians with an early 1-0 lead, but West responded with four unanswered goals to seal the decision. Aaron Standish stopped 16 shots to earn his third win of the season in net, while Bork, Ciancio, Chodkowski and Josh Hicks all scored for West. Pat Ryan assisted on two of the goals.

“We know that they’re young and struggling a little bit this year, so we might have overlooked them a little bit early on,” Rozo said. “We tell the kids all the time that everybody’s going to give them their best, especially when we’re having as good a year as we are. Fortunately, we regrouped and took the game over. It was good to see the balanced scoring too, with all the lines contributing.”

West (13-4-1, 10-2 league) will close out its regular season February 12 against Amherst, and though no one is looking past Williamsville East, Rozo knows that neither foe will make things easy, since they’re all in the chase for the top two or three spots in the league standings.

“Obviously we’re somewhat concerned about having a big layoff, but even if we didn’t have a big break between games, the need to stay sharp is just as strong,” Rozo said. “As it gets closer to that game against Williamsville East, we’ll turn our focus towards finishing our opportunities — because if we don’t do that in practice, we won’t do it in our games. We’re just hoping our trend of getting up for the big games continues.”

In related hockey news, the second annual Patrick Finnegan Memorial Alumni hockey game, held in honor of the late West Seneca Highway Superintendent and West Seneca West hockey coach who died in 2009, was held earlier this season at the West Seneca ice rink in Centennial Park. Many former players participated in the game and raised $720 through admission fees and other donations, which was donated to West’s hockey program.