AMHERST — It's been a much different route than usual, but the Niagara-Wheatfield Falcons will once again defend their sectional title.

The Niagara-Wheatfield Falcons will try for their fifth-straight Section VI Large School championship after defeating Orchard Park 4-0 in the semifinals Wednesday at the Northtown Center. The third time was the charm for N-W, which had lost twice to OP during the regular season.

"Early on we had a slow start coming out and then we were up and down a lot. We had a lot of adversity this year," N-W coach Rick Wrazin said. "We've had a ton of injuries, more injuries than we've ever had. ... Fighting all of this adversity has made us stronger."

The four-time defending champs possess the advantage of having players that have been to and won sectional finals as 14 of their 24 players have at least one sectional title, four have won two and both Alex Bauer and Joe Torcasio have won three.

"I think the experience in that game is big. I think it teaches kids how to go in not being too high or too low," Wrazin said. "We have enough of them that the guys who haven't been there can follow their lead."

The Falcons (11-10-1) had struggled to put the puck in the net this season but had no such trouble Wednesday, lighting the lamp four times. All they really needed was one thanks to an incredible effort from goaltender Dominick Tallarico. He secured the shutout with 26 saves and got some help from his best friend as Orchard Park hit the post twice.

Wheatfield controlled play throughout the first period, getting numerous odd-man rushes and putting on sustained pressure in Orchard Park's zone.

Around the halfway point, the Quakers iced the puck to get a breather and on the ensuing face-off Kasey Haseley picked up the puck in the circle and ripped a shot just wide of the OP net.

A few minutes later, Haseley led a 3 on 2 into the Orchard Park zone and slid the puck over to Nick Peters, who made a great play to kick the puck onto the blade of his stick and bury a shot to put Wheatfield up 1-0.

The roles reversed in the second period as Orchard Park controlled play coming out of the locker room. An errant pass from Bauer found the stick of a Quaker in the slot early in the period but Tallarico bailed his teammate out with a big stop.

Bauer repaid his goaltender's effort later in the period when he found himself on a 2-on-1 rush with Garrett Downie. Downie blocked a shot and took off with Bauer on his right. He slid the puck by a diving Orchard Park defender and Bauer made a great move to his backhand to beat the OP netminder and put N-W on top 2-0 with a little over two minutes left in the second.

"That was actually huge because they had a lot of pressure on us at the time," Wrazin said. "We get an odd man rush in transition and we go down and score after they had taken some momentum at the end of the period. That was a big time to get a big goal."

Wheatfield did all the right things in the final period to seal the win. Tallarico made a sprawling save to keep OP off the scoreboard with about two minutes left. Then a shot block at the point sent Downie down the ice all alone with an empty net in front of him. He put the final nail in OP's coffin with his 16th goal of the season. Downie added a second empty netter with four seconds to play.

Next up for the Falcons will be top-seeded Williamsville North — which defeated Clarence 4-2 in its semifinal before N-W took the ice —at 4 p.m. Monday at the First Niagara Center. Wheatfield lost twice to North during the regular season as well, most recently 6-2 on Feb. 13.