Monday night’s game between Frontier and Kenmore West featured two teams trying their best to put last season behind them and prove that they’re not the same team they were then. The result was a hard-fought defensive struggle and a 2-0 Frontier win.
“It was good to start off the year like that,” said goaltender Ryan Kaska, who had 28 saves in the shutout win. “Gives me and the guys confidence, so it’s good.”
The first goal didn’t come until the second period was nearly over. Just 2:57 remained in the period as captain Logan Warner scored unassisted to give Frontier a 1-0 lead.
But all Warner wanted to talk about was Kaska’s stellar performance in goal.
“Kaska stood on his head the whole game,” Warner said. “Without him, it would have been a much closer game.”
Frontier coach Bob Klimowicz expected a strong defensive showing from his team, and for the most part the Falcons have him that. But when the defense wasn’t perfect, Kaska was.
“We had defensive lapses at times,” Klimowicz said. “But for the most part I thought Ryan was able to see the puck, and he came up with a couple big saves when we needed them. And that’s huge about goaltending, making sure those saves are made when you do have those defensive lapses — that the goaltender’s there to cover up for you, so that’s big.”
“I think we played solid most of the game,” Kaska said. “A couple breakdowns and I had to come up big there, but I think overall we played well. Made my job easy.”
Just like Frontier is hoping to surprise a few people this season, Klimowicz was surprised by Kenmore West’s defensive strength.
“I was hoping to come out with a win,” Klimowicz said. “Nothing against Kenmore West; I know our competition’s gonna get much tougher as the year goes on. Our division is pretty tough, so it was a good test for us. They were stronger than I expected them to be. Their goaltender played strong.”
“We were expecting them to come out hard,” Warner said. “We were prepared to face them, and Kaska stood on his head and we played hard, battled back — couldn’t score at first, but then we followed up and got the win.”
Goaltender Ryan Mooney made 23 saves for the Blue Devils as he allowed just two goals. Nyles Linsley scored Frontier’s second goal with exactly four minutes remaining in the third period, and it was more the type of goal Klimowicz expects this year as Mike Jankowski got the puck to Linsley, who put it in the net.
“We’re gonna get the dirty goals,” Klimowicz said. “We’re gonna get the ugly goals, the mucking away and the rebounds and those types of goals; that’s what we’re gonna have to do.”
Klimowicz also liked the limited looks he had at his power play. The Falcons didn’t score on the power play with just two opportunities Monday night, but Klimowicz feels that with more opportunities will come more to show for them.
“The power play’s moving the puck around, and that’ll come around,” Klimowicz said. “We’re gonna have to depend on the power play to get some goals this year, but we also gotta create more opportunities to get more power play opportunities. We only had two, but overall, happy with the night.”
And for a team with mostly inexperienced players and others trying to forget the negative experiences of last season, winning the first game of the year was the best way to boost the confidence in the locker room as Frontier is scheduled to begin league play next week.
“It’s a big thing for the confidence in the room, just to get that win under our belts, and the whole thing is about confidence,” Klimowicz said. “There’s a lot of inexperienced players in there, so we need to build some confidence. And we’re not gonna score a lot of goals this year, so we’re gonna have to do our best to keep goals out of the net, and tonight was a good start.”
“It’s big,” said Kaska. “Gives the guys confidence and gives us that boost for the next game, so it’s a big win.”
“I wouldn’t rather start it off any other way,” said Warner.