BAUDO SHUTS DOOR IN SHOOT-OUT, VALINT BURIES WINNER OVER WHALERS

In a wild, back and forth affair, Team Visualeyes took down the first place Winter's Whalers 9-8 in a shoot-out Wednesday evening at Buffalo State Arena.

Wednesday was a coming out party for Max Bonito, and it came just in time as he netted two goals in the first and added two assists later in the game. Bonito's first period goals help Team V jettison out to a 4-2 lead over the Whalers. Andy Valint scored the third of the period with a blistering slap-shot from just inside the blue line. Whalers goaltender, Don Morrissonn barely had time to move before Valint ripped the puck over his glove. Visualeyes controlled play and knew they would have to, as they faced a very deep Whalers bench and were short players on their own.

The second period was played extremely defensive as each team only found the back of the net once. Elliot Winter scored for the Whale four minutes into the period, but Donald Borsuk netted his second of the night off the pass from Ryan Donnelly to increase Visualeyes' lead to two.

Visualeyes expected a battle from the top team in the EMHL in the third, and got it. The Whalers army of players wore down the three Visualeyes' defencemen by dumping and chasing for most of the third. The Whale was able to tie the score at six, and take the lead by one, with five minutes remaining. Visualeyes looked to be on the ropes, and running out of gas until Bonito hit Garren Reisweber back-door to tie the game at seven. Team V gained some momentum and Dust-Pan Dunnigan put home the 8th goal, to regain the lead with just under two minutes in the game. Borsuk and Eric Schottke assisted on Dunnigan's tip in front.

The Whale continued to pressure Visualeyes with only 90 seconds left in the third period. A pulled goalie and with an extra man, Jimmy LeCuyer tied the score at 8 with 44 seconds remaining.

This wild game headed into a shootout where Team V proved to be the better squad. Matt Baudo denied the first 3 Whalers shooters, while Visualeyes was unable to score in the extra frame either. The shoot-out turned into a sudden-death format where Baudo continued to build the wall in front of his net. As the 7th shooter, Andy Valint took the puck wide to the left, and let go a low slap-shot that burned passed the Whalers' net-minder. Now, it was up to Baudo to stop the next Whaler shooter, and he did, earning two points over their long time rival.

After his shootout winner, Valint spoke of the top team in the EMHL from his Thursday afternoon bubble-bath. "The Whalers are like the '99 Sabres. Good goalie surrounded by a bunch of plugs. Can they win a few? Sure, but when matched up against a loaded team like the us, or the '99 Stars, the crumble. It feels really great to finally score a big goal after 456 career EMHL games."

NEWS AND NOTES

-Visualeyes faces off Monday, December 17th at 7:50pm against Elmwood Cozumel. Great seats are still available!