Last February, the Jamestown Raiders won a New York State High School Club Hockey League state championship at Northwest Arena.

Weeks later, the Jamestown Lakers 18U Midget team — made up of nearly an identical group of players — had their shot at a New York State Amateur Hockey Association state title taken away by the coronavirus pandemic.

This year, the script has been flipped.

While many of the same players earned the local club hockey White Division title playing for the Raiders, but dreams of defending their title were wiped out because the statewide tournament was canceled.

“It’s completely different this year,” head coach Jimmy Bergman said Thursday night. “It’s been wild.”

Starting today, some of those same players will have an opportunity to win an 18U Midget title with the Lakers because the NYSAHA is holding its state tournament. They’ll also have a couple of reinforcements.

Bergman’s team will open play at 12:10 this afternoon against West Point in Lockport. The Lakers’ second game will be against Oswego at 6:40 tonight. They’ll continue play Saturday at 6:05 p.m. against White Plains and complete round-robin play Sunday morning at 8 against Bedford. All games will be at Cornerstone Arena.

While the Raiders varsity team is comprised of New York players in local high schools, the 18U Midget team includes Josh Brown, Thomas Lucks and Luke Tota, who graduated last summer. Lucks and Conner Maze are from across the border in Pennsylvania.

16U MIDGETS

Head coach Tommy Gerace’s 16U Midgets also qualified for this weekend’s state tournament.

“COVID has made it a crazy year. We started practicing in September even though we weren’t allowed to play games in New York state,” Gerace said Thursday evening. ” … After we got the go-ahead to start playing games, it gave our group a collective vision for which to work. It’s finally coming to fruition this weekend.”

The Lakers tied a pair of qualifying games against Batavia. First was a 3-3 game in Batavia followed by a 2-2 contest in Jamestown. The Lakers advanced to the state tournament thanks to a points-by-period tiebreaker.

The Lakers were scheduled to open play this morning at 8 against Thousand Islands. The team’s second game is today at 4:20 p.m. against Finger Lakes and the Lakers will conclude round-robin play at 2:10 p.m. Saturday against the Cicero Chill. All of the 16U Midgets games are also scheduled to be played at Cornerstone Arena.

Ritter Coombs leads the Lakers with 14 goals and 28 points in 16 games while Michael Gerace has nine goals and 19 points.

“Michael is our team captain and in terms of leadership, Michael has really paved the way,” said Tommy Gerace, who is assisted on the bench by Matt Finnerty and Scott Lemk. “Ritter is an eighth-grader who is playing varsity. He’s an incredible talent and leading our team in points.”

Alex MacCallum has nine goals and 18 points; Spencer Bell has seven goals and 14 points; Lucas Gilbert has nine goals and 14 points; Wade Daniels has five goals and 14 points; and Griffin Bogdanowicz has five goals and 13 points.

“Kids like Alex MacCallum and (Hudson) Knapp … Wade Daniels, Jack Wells all of these older kids infused with our younger core has really created a spectacular group we were excited about back in September,” Gerace said, “and couldn’t be more excited about heading into this weekend.”

Collin Norlander, the Lakers’ lone goalie for most of the season, is 11-3-3 with a 2.21 goals against average and a .902 save percentage.

“Collin has only been playing four years, but his game has grown exponentially,” Gerace said. “He’s been a backbone and he’ll be our backbone this weekend. He had an incredible jayvee season. I really hope we can reward him this weekend for his hard work over the past few years.”

A majority of the 16U team is comprised of local players with the exception of Daniels and Wells from Pennsylvania and Henry Brairton from Olean.

14U BANTAMS

Head coach Joe Hirliman’s 14U team was scheduled to open play this morning at 7:30 a.m. against Norfolk/Norwood. The 14U squad will play its second round-robin game at 5:25 p.m. tonight against the Finger Lakes Outlaws with its third game Saturday at 10:05 a.m. against Millbrook.

“I think it’s awesome that these kids could do it,” said Hirliman, who is also the Chautauqua County Youth Hockey Association president. “I hope they can perform well and they can come out of this with their heads held high, win or lose.”

The Bantams — comprised of a majority of local players other than Logan Degnan and Bergen Nelson from Pennsylvania — advanced to the state tournament with a pair of wins against Tri-County.

All of the 14U games are scheduled for Dwyer Arena, home of the Niagara University Purple Eagles.

TOURNAMENT NOTES

18U Midget games will be broadcast locally on WKSN radio. 14U Bantam games will be live-streamed on Facebook. All games are available to watch on LiveBarn, a subscription-based program. The remainder of the weekend’s championship schedule will be determined following round-robin play.

“Knock on wood, we’ve been safe. The whole association has been safe throughout the duration of this,” Hirliman said of a hockey season during COVID-19. “We’ve taken precautions to keep us safe and we’ll continue to do that.”