Niagara Wheatfield was frustrated. Through five league games, the Falcons have two wins, and they feel that in every one of those games, they haven’t been offensive or physical enough, and they haven’t won a third period.
On Monday and Tuesday, the Falcons took a break from league play to play in Williamsville East’s Winter Classic. Monday’s game was a 3-1 loss to Pelham, but Tuesday’s game was a rematch of last year’s regionals, and Niagara Wheatfield avenged last year’s loss with a 4-2 win over McQuaid.
“I think it was a motivator for us,” Niagara Wheatfield coach Rick Wrazin said. “We’ve been kind of needing something to play for, and hopefully this gets them going and makes them understand that when you have a ‘why,’ things can happen.”
“I think probably most of the guys that were here last year, I don’t think a day went by that we didn’t think about that game,” said Falcons senior defenseman Matt Canada. “Because in years past, we didn’t play to our potential, and then last year I thought we played well and we just didn’t come out on top, so I think we were fired up going into this game.”
“I wasn’t on the team last year, but me and all the boys on the team — I’ve had friends that were on that team last year, and they took it hard,” said sophomore forward Mike LoTempio, who scored two goals in Tuesday’s win, including the game winner. “I know how hard they worked all year that year, and they worked for five months. It was tough for them, but we’re coming back this year and it feels great to beat them guys.”
Tuesday’s game was about more than just redemption from last year, though; it was about the Falcons waking up their offense and keeping their heads up no matter what might happen during the course of the game. Until Tuesday, that had been a struggle.
“We’re not finding our offense,” Wrazin said. “We’ve been squeezing the stick. A lot of guys are putting too much pressure on themselves, trying to do too much. We really just wanted to slow things down in the offensive zone. We did it early, and then we gave up a goal, and that’s kind of been what’s happening to us for a little while. Give up a goal, and then the momentum swings. We have been falling apart a little bit when that happens. It was nice to hang in there today and stay on it.”
LoTempio scored an unassisted goal on his own rebound less than five minutes into the first period, and he was relieved and excited to finally find the offense he’s been looking for in his first year on varsity.
“It felt great, actually. I’ve been struggling scoring lately, and it was a chip off my back there,” LoTempio said. “Just the bounce off the D, and I shot it. I missed the first one, but I stayed with it, I got the rebound and just buried it in.”
“He’s a guy that’s been waiting to find his offense,” Wrazin said. “He’s been really frustrated, and he’s been squeezing the stick, so hopefully now that he found the net a little bit, he’ll settle in. But he’s a puck possession kind of kid: he has good vision, he sets guys up for goals, so hopefully that’ll get him on track.”
And then there was the physical aspect of Tuesday’s game. McQuaid is known for its physical style in the past, but Niagara Wheatfield has been known for the same in the past. Playing McQuaid helped the Falcons to step up and match the physical play.
“We knew that they always play a physical brand of hockey,” Wrazin said. “We knew they were gonna be tough. We knew they were gonna come hard. You know what kind of team you’re getting with them. We played them in the regionals last year, so we expected it was gonna be a tough game. And they had a lot of turnover, they had a lot of new guys, but their MO is always what I like to think ours has been in the past. It’s always, come at you hard and be physical and make you make mistakes and get in your head a little bit, so it was nice to see us fight it off, even though it did get a little crazy down the stretch.”
“I think that one of our weak points all year has been that we don’t play physical enough,” said Canada. “And knowing that this was a physical team, I think we thought it was gonna be a good game to try to get the physical juices running and carry it on through the rest of the season.”
They could have done without the plethora of penalties, especially in the third period, but Canada liked the passion he saw from his teammates — something else they’ve been lacking in the early goings of the season.
“It’s nice to see guys showing emotion because earlier in the season, we kind of lacked that,” Canada said. “But we were also trying to rein guys in — we don’t want it to get too crazy, but it’s nice to see some emotion.”
And the Falcons never got too down on themselves, even when McQuaid tied the game twice on the power play. Craig McCabe tied the game less than four minutes after LoTempio’s first goal, and when Niagara Wheatfield regained the lead less than five minutes into the second on a goal by Matt Pawlak and assisted by Nick Breier and Zack Belter, Luc Rosedale tied the game one minute and three seconds later.
LoTempio’s second goal of the game came 10:11 into the third and gave Niagara Wheatfield the lead for good.
“I was just fighting to the net, got a nice pass from Garrett Downie, and I just tapped it in,” LoTempio said. And of scoring the game winner, LoTempio smiled and said, “It feels great, actually.”
Downie added to the Falcons’ lead 25 seconds later, assisted by LoTempio, and the 4-2 score stood as Niagara Wheatfield never gave up an even-strength goal.
“I think we moved pucks out,” Canada said of the strong defense. “We had a lot of young guys come up. Dom Pulli especially, he came up and helped a lot this game. Matt McCune played well, so I think we just moved pucks well and got out of our zone quick.”
And with the two third period goals, the win was Niagara Wheatfield’s most complete game of the season. Even in their two wins, the Falcons allowed their opponent to creep back into the game in the third.
“I think the biggest thing for us is probably three periods,” Wrazin said. “It’s the first third period that we’ve won in five games, so they need to learn to play three periods, and I think today was a pretty good job of it.”
“That was our first complete game this year,” LoTempio said. “Everybody was grinding, it was just like, everybody had their wheels moving. We’ve struggled this year, being on the same page and everything, and this game has finally came to that, and hopefully we’re trying to turn it around, and today was a good game to move in the right direction.”
Canada also emphasized the importance of playing a physical game. He believes it was the difference on Tuesday and that it needs to continue as the Falcons move forward.
“I think it shows that, in order to win we gotta grind,” Canada said. “All our goals were grinder goals. It was a physical game, and I think that’s what it takes to win.”
Tuesday’s game was one that brought everything together for Niagara Wheatfield, and the Falcons will take the confidence, momentum, and lessons learned as they move forward and continue league play on Saturday. They’re scheduled to face Canisius at 9 pm on Saturday; the last meeting was a 2-2 tie. This time, the Falcons think they might have what they need to come out on top.
“It should be a huge boost,” Wrazin said. “We got some goals, we got a little offense. I’m hoping once we got started on offense, it just keeps raining, so we’ll see what happens.”
“It was huge. We’ve been struggling to score, we’ve been struggling to win,” Canada said. “I think that hopefully we can get rolling now.”