Grand Island opened the season with an overtime loss to North Tonawanda on Dec 3. In the rematch on Saturday night, Grand Island goaltender Nick Jennings said the Vikings wanted this one more. And in the first game of the Cataract City Classic, Grand Island came away with a 4-1 victory.
“The whole game, I was confident,” Jennings said. “I knew we were gonna win because we lost in overtime in our last game against these guys, so we wanted it more than them. I wanted it more than them for sure.”
The Dec 3 game was motivation for more than just Jennings. It was a theme among the Vikings’ goal scorers Saturday night: Parker Morrow, who scored twice, and Drew Callen and Austin Blair, who each had a goal and an assist.
“I wanted to come in and win because they just beat us in overtime last time we played, so I was just a little bit mad, so I wanted to come out and win here,” Morrow said.
“They beat us in overtime the first game, so we wanted to come back and beat them the second time,” said Callen.
“We were real mad about the last NT game,” Blair said. “It slipped away from us. We had a few goals that we would have liked to have back. We really wanted to take it to them this game, so I think it even pumped us up a little more.”
It was Morrow who scored the first goal for the Vikings with 6:14 left in the first period to give his team the first lead of the game.
“I love getting the first goal,” Morrow said. “It always gets us all pumped up, the whole team. It was a good play by Drew Callen, who gave me the assist. Passed it right out front. I put it in the bottom corner. It was pretty good.”
Curtis Vivian tied the game for North Tonawanda with 2:10 left in the
North Tonawanda defenseman Kyle Crooks accepts the MVP award following Saturday’s game against Grand Island
first. It was Vivian’s 10th goal of the season, and much of Grand Island’s game plan revolved around stopping Vivian. On that goal, the Vikings were unable to contain the Fed’s leading scorer.
“We knew they got a line of studs,” Grand Island coach Bob Simpson said. “24 is a fantastic player; he flies around. He made a play on us, went right around our guy and put it in, so we wanted to really just minimize his chances overall. And we thought if we could minimize that line, our top three lines could generate enough scoring, and they did. Every single line generated a lot of scoring chances.”
Vivian’s goal was the only one allowed by the Vikings’ strong defense and goaltending. Jennings put on quite a performance after getting the starting nod just minutes before game time after a week off from practice due to illness. But there was no rust in Jennings’ game Saturday night.
“Our starting goalie had a problem with the chin strap,” Simpson explained. “He didn’t have a chin strap, so Jennings found out he was starting about two minutes before the game, so to come in and play like that after he was sick all last week as well — didn’t practice at all. So he came out, did a good job for us. He’s a really good athlete. Comes out and he brings it every game.”
“I was kind of confused because all week I was sick, but I was ready for it because I just wanted to win,” Jennings said. “I hadn’t been on the ice in one and a half weeks, so I really just wanted to be out there.”
There were a couple North Tonawanda chances that stuck out in Jennings’ mind after the game — one where the Lumberjacks missed on a breakaway and another where Jennings prevented a second chance on a rebound.
“He actually missed the net: there was a breakaway and he completely went wide,” Jennings said. “And then there was another when he shot right at my shoulder and I caught it, and if I didn’t catch it, it would have been a rebound and he would have had a wide open net.”
Callen scored the game winner just a minute and a half into the second period, and Blair and Morrow added insurance goals 50 seconds apart with less than three minutes remaining in the second.
“Mike Mankowski forced a turnover,” Callen said. “I just found it in front and shot it in.”
Drew Callen accepts the MVP award following Grand Island’s 4-1 win over North Tonawanda
Callen’s game-winning goal and earlier assist earned him MVP honors following the game, a special moment for him with extended family in attendance.
“It’s pretty cool,” Callen said of the award. “My family’s here, like my aunts and uncles. They don’t really go to a lot of games, so I could get that in front of them. Holiday present, I guess.”
“Callen’s just an all-around great player,” Simpson said. “He’s a leader. He’s a senior on this team, and we expect that from him every single day, and he brought it. He got a goal and assist. So that’s what we expect from him every single game.”
Morrow was excited about the win, but after how mad he was after the earlier loss to North Tonawanda, he wished the Vikings could have done even more.
“It was a good win tonight,” he said. “I wish we had won by a little bit more, just because of how they came back and beat us. I wanted to get them mad, but I think we’re gonna have a pretty good tournament, and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
“It’s a good win for us because we definitely believe we should have won the last one, so it was nice to get a second chance,” Blair said. “And next game, I’m excited to see who we’re gonna play, and I think it’ll be a good game tomorrow.”