The tougher games have worked out well for North Tonawanda this season. The latest was a 4-1 win over Division 3 opponent Williamsville South on Saturday afternoon. Senior captain Curtis Vivian scored two goals and assisted the other two, and sophomore goaltender Nick Pryzybylski earned his second win in as many games.
“Nick being a sophomore, he played steady for us; second game that he’s done that for us,” North Tonawanda coach Alan Zbytek said. “And Vivian being the senior, and he’s putting the puck in and assisting and being the leader that we expected him to from the beginning of the year, so that’s good to see: that he’s really maturing this year.”
The Lumberjacks didn’t expect Saturday’s game to be easy, but they were prepared.
“We knew it was gonna be a hard game,” Vivian said. “But we knew if we kept moving our feet, that we had a good chance to come out with the win, so we just used our speed, and we put the puck in the net, buried our chances.”
The Lumberjacks took the lead early as Zack Warner scored 5:03 into the first and Vivian scored his first of the game 53 seconds later. Vivian and Dylan Folger picked up the assists on Warner’s goal, and Warner assisted Vivian’s.
“We talked about, in the locker room before we came out, that we wanted to get the first one, put the pressure on them,” Vivian said. “It’s always better playing up than playing down, so the fact that we got out there on the fast start, got the first goal, I think it really helped the team. It gave us a lot of motivation to keep putting the puck in the net.”
North Tonawanda would put the puck in the net more later in the game, but through the rest of the first and the entire second period, the score remained the same.
“The second period was tough, definitely,” Vivian said. “[The Billies] came out hard, and they were pretty [ticked] that it was two-nothing. But we stuck with it, we kept playing our game, and we knew that if we just played the way we did in the first in the second and the third, that we’d come out with the win.”
But the Billies’ frustrations resulted in taking four penalties in the second period, and although North Tonawanda was unable to capitalize on those opportunities, Williamsville South was held scoreless as well.
And 2:55 into the third period, the Lumberjacks did score on the power play as Dan Smolka scored a goal assisted by Spencer Scalise and, of course, Vivian. Less than a minute later, Vivian scored his second goal of the game, assisted by Scalise, to put the Jacks up 4-0.
“I’m definitely happy about getting four points, but it’s a team effort,” Vivian said. “And I think every guy on the team played hard today, so it was just a good team win.”
The shutout was intact until over halfway through the third period when Cam Osalkowski scored for Williamsville South, assisted by Alex Fix. Pryzybylski made 26 saves for NT as he earned the win and allowed just the one goal.
“This guy was amazing the whole game,” Vivian said. “He kept us in it, and I can’t wait ’til he’s back in net for us.”
Pryzybylski just stuck to his game plan, and that worked as he was strong through the entire game.
“Just play well,” was Pryzybylski’s plan. “Don’t let the puck in, obviously. Not try to do too much; just try to do my job. Don’t let other stuff get in my head. Just try to keep a good mental state, and everything will come with it.”
And to earn the win for his team?
“It’s huge,” Pryzybylski said, grinning. “Two-and-oh in my first two games. Love it.”
The Lumberjacks improved to a perfect 3-0 against Division 3 opponents. They’d like to improve against opponents in their own Division 4, but the success against the higher division had Vivian smiling and ready to get back to work against those teams the Lumberjacks didn’t fare so well against.
“It’s huge,” Vivian said. “Three-and-oh against Division 3 now. Now we just gotta start playing hard against teams in our division. We’re pretty upset that we lost to Lew-Port how we did, and we’re pretty upset that we lost to Ken West, so we can’t wait to get back and play those teams.”
First, the Jacks have an eight-day break before they’re scheduled for a rematch against Lewiston Porter on Jan 2.