Blues Advance to Second Round

Robert Bentivegna scored two goals as the Dundas Blues defeated Dunnville 4-2 Saturday night to advance to round two of the Niagara District East Division Junior C hockey playoffs.

General manager Steve Aglor said Dundas will take a couple of days off to rest before preparing for second round opponent Chippawa - a tough team that out-muscled the Blues for second place in the regular season and a first round playoff bye.

Bentivegna's three point night capped a five game first round series that saw the first year Blue lead the team in scoring with four goals and five assists.

Dunnville hit the scoreboard first, Saturday night, taking a 1-0 first period lead.

BJ Caco evened the tally with a shorthanded goal in the sccond period.

Bentivegna broke the tie with an unassisted powerplay goal early in the final frame. But Dunnville tied it at three with less than six minutes left.

In the final three minutes, Bentivegna scored the winning goal with assists from Andrew Kolodzey and Trevor Atkinson. Kalodzey iced the win with an empty net goal, assisted by Bentivegna.

Dundas goalie Shawn Krzykala made 25 saves for the win.

"The team showed a lot of grit and determination and was pretty drained by the time the game was over," Aglor said, adding the Blues finished with just 13 available skaters.

Aglor said Chippawa is a particularly tough team in their own rink. The division's number two team during the regular season topped Dundas four times in six regular season meetings.

"Every game was close," Aglor said. "The teams are evenly matched."

Dundas is still waiting for a few injured players to return to the line-up, including regular season scoring leaders Cole McNeil and Nick Bazinet. In the meantime, the Blues will continue to rely on several Midget AAA call-up's who all played a big role in the first round.

"They sure helped us get through the Dunnville series," Aglor said.

Veteran Blues Kevin Dowling (five goals, two assists in five games), Mike Peters (three goals, three assists in five games) and D.J. McConnell (two goals and four assists in five games) also stepped up throughout the first round.

The Blues open the second round in Chippawa on Tuesday, then return to Dundas' J.L. Grightmire Arena on Saturday Feb. 20 for game two at 6:30 p.m. Game three goes the next day in Chippawa and game four is set for Tuesday, Feb. 23 in Dundas.