Speed, conditioning, and more speed. That’s Orchard Park’s game plan, and for a while on Saturday, Williamsville North kept up. The Spartans took a 1-0 lead early in the game, but the Quakers outlasted them and came back to win their first game of the season 2-1.
“We skate hard every practice,” Orchard Park coach Josh Dannecker said. “It’s gonna be a long season, so we’re gonna have to manage that a little bit, but I think that the guys are buying into the philosophy of working hard and skating hard, and they’re seeing the results today.”
But Dannecker, as well as senior forward Jeff Palczewski, didn’t think the Quakers turned on full speed until the third quarter. Nick Tracy scored for Williamsville North 5:36 into the third, assisted by Matt Terrance, and the Spartans held onto the 1-0 lead until the third period.
“I think we came out slow, but after that second period break in the locker room, we used our speed to our advantage a lot in the third period,” Palczewski said. “We kind of out-skated them. It seemed like we were more conditioned in the third period. We moved the puck a lot more than they did. They had us in the first period, but then we had them in the third period with the puck movement.”
It was just about halfway through the third period, at 7:15, when Marshall Cappelli tied the game at one with an unassisted goal. And a few minutes later, Palczewski scored the game winner on a breakaway after just missing a few seconds earlier.
“That first one, I hit the crossbar, and I was super mad about that one,” Palczewski said. “And then I blocked a shot and I went back down, and I shot on the same side, his glove side, because I saw that his glove side was weak, so I shot to the same side, and it just went in.”
“I think especially in the third period, we were working, trying to get opportunities,” Dannecker said. “Jeff came through the middle and just turned the gas on and then was able to bury the puck. That’s something that we’ve been preaching and talking about, using the speed, and it paid off for us at the end there.”
Overall, Williamsville North outshot Orchard Park 29-24, but in the third period, the shots were 7-6 in favor of the Quakers.
“There were a lot of momentum swings in that game, and we were fortunate at the end there to kind of turn it on and play well at the end,” Dannecker said.
“After that second period break into that third period, that was the big turnaround point because we used our speed to our advantage,” Palczewski said. “And I felt like we were more conditioned than them in the third period.”
Williamsville North ended the Quakers’ season last year with a 2-1 win in the section semifinals. That made it even more rewarding for Orchard Park to win its first game of the season over the Spartans by the same score.
“It’s a big game to win, especially considering it’s against North,” Palczewski said. “That’s our big rival, and it’s our first game, and we’re glad to get that one under our belt.”
Dannecker was excited for the win too, but he was quick to give credit where credit was due, and he and assistant coach Steve Ferrentino made sure to take the Spartans seriously right up until the end.
“Obviously every team, every program wants to start off on the right foot, and I think that we were able to do that, and hopefully we can use this as motivation for the rest of the way,” Dannecker said. “North’s a great team. They’re really strong, and Coach Ferrentino and I, we were sitting there thinking toward the end of the game, we want to play conservative, make sure we’re holding onto the lead, and we did a good job there hanging on at the end.”