On Sunday, many of the same Raiders were in a similar position, playing for another state championship.

But again, Jamestown came up just short, losing to Grand Island, 4-3, in the Small/Open Division at Hyde Park.

Grand Island scored the eventual winning goal with 4:50 remaining in the second period when Liam Snyder won a battle along the wall and then threw a backhand through the middle of the Raiders defense to a waiting Ryan Pinzel on the far post, who buried an easy tap-in to give the Vikings a 4-2 lead.

Jamestown got a goal back with just 15.8 seconds left in the middle period. With Snyder in the penalty box for roughing, the Raiders set up their power play, which had already struck once on the afternoon. With the period winding down, Jackob Guimond carried the puck into the zone and left a drop pass for Jed Hirliman, who coasted into the slot and beat the Grand Island goaltender with a wrist shot to make it 4-3.

The Jamestown Raiders JV team celebrates a victory during this past weekend’s AAU New York State tournament at Hyde Park Ice Pavilion in Niagara Falls

Twice during the final period, Jamestown was required to kill off a penalty, the second of which came with 9:55 remaining. Five times during that penalty, goaltender Jack Yost was called upon to turn aside Vikings’ shots and keep it a one-goal game.

With 6:45 left in the contest, Raiders defenseman Evan Bishop nearly tied it, but his wrist shot from the point rang off the crossbar. Jamestown was then awarded a power play with 2:40 remaining as Pinzel went to the penalty box for tripping. Midway through the penalty, the Raiders narrowly missed an open net and a minute into the power play, Jamestown pulled Yost in favor of an extra attacker.

Despite a wild scramble in the final seconds and the Vikings goaltender getting caught out of his net, the Raiders were unable to push the tying goal across the line, allowing Grand Island to celebrate a JV state title for the second straight season after it won the Small School championship in 2018.

A fairly even first period turned in the final three minutes of play. Snyder picked up the opening goal of the game when he dangled through a Jamestown defenseman before beating Yost with a snapshot up high for a 1-0 lead. Just over two minutes later, Idrius Falletta made it 2-0 when he stickhandled through another Raiders defenseman, was knocked off balance to his knees, and was still able to bury a shot to the far post.

Jamestown finally got on the board in the final minute as Lucian Talbett secured the puck behind the Vikings net and was able to backhand a pass into the slot where Trenton Shutters was waiting to bang it home to make it 2-1 with 22.1 seconds remaining.

After Evan Christensen, Michael Gerace and Declan Brown upped the pressure on the Grand Island with three quality chances with under 10 minutes remaining in the second period, the Raiders took advantage of their first power play of the game. Needing just 10 seconds to capitalize, Cooper Bergman slid a perfect pass to Brown, who buried his chance behind the Vikings goaltender to tie the game at 2.

The game remained knotted for just three minutes as Grand Island took a one-goal lead with 5:51 remaining. Falletta found Stephen Leone open, who then fed another puck through the middle of the Raiders defense to Jack Mankowski, who was waiting for a tap-in to make it 3-2.

The was followed in succession by Pinzel’s winning goal just over a minute later.

While their JV dreams didn’t come true Sunday, many of the game players will play for the Jamestown Lakers 16U Midget team the weekend of March 22-24 when they compete for a New York State Amateur Hockey Association championship at Northtown Center in Amherst.