BUFFALO — Senior Chris Cacciatore had three points including the game winning goal as Niagara-Wheatfield blanked Clarence, 3-0, in their Section VI Large School pre-quarterfinal game at HarborCenter, Saturday.

The Falcons advance to Tuesday’s quarterfinals where they will play Lancaster at 6 p.m., also at HarborCenter, as they continue their mission to return to the state championship game.

“We have guys that have been here. They know how they’re supposed to close out a game like that,” said N-W coach Rick Wrazin.

“We let it start to get away from us but in the second half of the third I thought we pulled it together pretty good and the guys got back on track. Even when things weren’t going our way they still continued to work.”

The teams skated through an evenly played, scoreless first period.

The Falcons broke through in the second when Cacciatore fired the puck past Clarence goalie Matthew Binkowski.

Less than two minutes later Cacciatore and Cam King set up Caleb Lee for goal No. 2 on the day.

“First period, playoff hockey is a totally different game so everyone is struggling a little bit,” Cacciatore said. “Once we got that momentum, we got that first goal it was just keep it going and see what happens.”

Niagara-Wheatfield had more jump in their step in. the second period and though the game got a bit chippy midway through the second the Falcons maintained their composure and focus.

“(Our seniors) were huge,” Wrazin said. “We just kind of talked about it and we said we’ve got guys that have been here four times and have been to the (sectional) finals twice and guys that played beyond that last year.

“We have a decent amount of playoff experience. It’s big for us when they can come in and settle a game down and they can lead by example. We just talked to them about making sure moving forward they do a good job of keeping everybody’s nerves down because they know. They’ve been through it.”

Clarence brought a more sustained offensive push at the start of the third period and definitely had the flow of the game in their favor, but the Falcons managed to fend them off.

NW senior goalie Peyton Siegmann turned away all 23 Red Devil shots that he faced.

He made the saves he has to make, didn’t cough up rebounds and the Falcons D did a quality job of clearing the front of the net, eliminating the Red Devils chances.