Prior to the final game in women's scholastic division ice hockey, there was talk that the unbeaten Western team had already clinched the gold medal, and even coach Scott McDonald figured as much.

     It was a good thing he didn't tell his team because it wasn't necessarily true.

     But thanks to a pair of goals 15 seconds apart by Amherst's Kristen Knoll and Orchard Park's Kristen Spulecki, Western managed to skate past a potential controversy and claim the gold in the Empire State Games with a 5-4 triumph over Long Island on Saturday night at the Amherst Center.

     "This is great," Spulecki said. "This is what we came here to do and we did it. This is perfect."

     Like an unremitting black and red machine, Western rolled through the competition and was a perfect 4-0 heading into Saturday while Long Island was 2-0-2.

     Western outscored opponents, 24-2, and recorded back-to-back shutouts over New York City and Adirondack before Saturday's game.

Western won its opener, 5-0, against Hudson Valley before defeating Central, 5-2, in its second game, with Victoria Salmon getting two of the goals. They then defeated NYC and Adirondack by identical scores of 7-0. In the New York City game Salmon had two goals and three assists while Lancaster's Heather Rinow had two goals.

     Western has medaled in every Games since the sport was introduced in 1999 with golds in 2001, 2005 and 2010. Long Island won gold in 2008 and 2006 while Adirondack, which took home the bronze, has won five gold medals.

     "The first four games were somewhat easy for us," McDonald said. "We thought we had a really good defensive unit coming into the tournament. We have really quick forwards so we wanted to push the pace on teams to see if they could keep up."

     "Basically," Spulecki said, "we did what we had to do."

     But they had to do a little more if they wanted gold.

     A Long Island win would have put them in a tie in points with eight, and L.I. would have taken the tie-breaker because it won the head-to-head matchup. Western needed to win or tie to claim the gold medal.

     This all made a few ice hockey committee members somewhat nervous of a potential outcry from Western fans, especially when Long Island's Jaclyn Arbour gave Long Island its first lead at, 4-3, with 11:33 left in the final period on a backhanded shot off an assist from Isabell Whiteley and Lindsey Spatola.

     It was the first time Western trailed during the Games.

     McDonald said it didn't help that his team scored its first goal at the 14:26 mark of the first period with Ashley Ryan assisting Emily Janiga.

     "We relaxed after that," McDonald said. "You have to give Long Island credit, they showed up and wanted to play and really gave us a challenge."

     Knoll helped put her teammates at ease with 7:41 left in the game.

     She got sprung on a broken play with an odd-man rush coming down the side and whistled a bullet into the right corner of the net. The Western bench erupted.

     "I was so tired that I just wanted to get it in the goal," Knoll said. "I thought I was going to fall out but I saw the right side open and that was the only thing that I could see. I got tripped but it was all good because I got the goal that helped us win it."

     Spulecki answered with the winner 15 seconds later off a feed from Nicole Kirchberger.

     "It was an adrenaline rush," Spulecki said. "I got it, shot and it felt good."

     So does winning gold.

rmckissic@buffnews.comnull