The hard work is paying off for Kenmore West. The Blue Devils are on a three-game win streak, the most recent win a 5-1 victory over North Tonawanda on Monday night. Senior forward Jake Green scored a hat trick while his linemate, Kole Marquardt, picked up four assists.
Kenmore West limited a North Tonawanda team that scored eight goals against Niagara Falls last week to just nine shots on goal, while the Blue Devils had 43.
“I thought it was kind of a dominating performance by us tonight,” Kenmore West coach Rob Roszak said. “We really want to send a message to the NT’s and the Lew-Ports and the Sweet Homes in our division, that we’re fighting them to finish first place in our division and get that bye in the first round. I think this was our first complete game from period one to period three where we’ve played solidly for the whole game, so I’m very happy with the performance I saw by everybody.”
Kenmore West started off fast as George Ciancio scored just over a minute into the first period. Marquardt picked up his first assist of the night on Ciancio’s goal.
Joe Zimmerman scored for Kenmore West 5:01 into the second, and although the Lumberjacks’ Kyle Crooks scored 8:55 into the second period, Green scored the first goal of his hat trick less than three minutes later.
The second came just over halfway through the third period, and Green completed the feat with just 2:44 remaining in regulation.
A hat trick, Roszak said, is something that’s been a long time coming for Green.
“Jake has been on the cusp of getting a hat trick for two seasons,” Roszak said. “This is his third year on varsity, and he’s got a good shot. I told him, ‘Jake, get in the spots, get your shot off.'”
“I have Kole and George on my line,” Green said. “They really help. They just work for me, pass me the puck, and I just put it in.”
Green, Marquardt, and Ciancio have been linemates for the past couple of years, which has led to strong chemistry between the three players.
“They know where they are on the ice,” Roszak said. “It’s kind of like a second nature. [They know] where one guy’s gonna be, where the other guy’s gonna be, so this is kind of a breakout game for them. And it’s what we expect from them every night: to get two or three points apiece out of this, so it’s a great breakout game for them tonight, so I’m happy with their performance tonight.”
“I’ve been playing with George and Jake for a couple years now, and we all know our roles,” Marquardt said. “I kind of pass, Jake’s a shooter. I just look, he usually gets open, so I usually have confidence he’s gonna be there, so it works.”
But Roszak spoke of more than just the performance of the high-scoring line. Two of the Blue Devils’ goals came on the power play, and Roszak liked the way they limited the Lumberjacks’ opportunities.
“I don’t know what to expect from North Tonawanda, but I thought we did a very good job of limiting their opportunities,” Roszak said. “We scored two power play goals tonight, so we took advantage of the time they spent in the penalty box, which I’m very happy about. I thought our defense played very well tonight. I thought our back check was good. It was overall a great team performance for every guy on the team today.”
“They had a couple wins, so we came in off two wins, so that was big, kind of kept momentum,” Marquardt said. “We knew it was gonna be a tough game, so right from the beginning we just stressed hard forecheck speed, and it was big scoring first. We haven’t done that much. Putting five goals in was definitely a confidence booster because we haven’t been scoring much, so that was good.”
Green was relieved as well as excited to see his and his teammates’ hard work pay off, and it hit home when he scored the third goal.
“It feels really good to get the credit for all the hard work and stuff that we put in all year,” Green said. “It felt great: just a lot of weight off my shoulders to put it away and win the game.”
Kenmore West’s three straight wins have improved the Blue Devils’ record to 3-1 in league play.
“It’s really big on the three-game win streak,” Green said. “I feel like we have a lot of momentum going through the games forward and it shows all of our hard work through the whole year.”
“We definitely want to be a contender to win this division, so it’s a good start right now,” Marquardt said. “One loss isn’t the best, but we’ll get it back.”