Orchard Park decided to stop worrying about the opponent so much and focus on its own game. It started with the way the Quakers prepared for Saturday’s game against Williamsville East and carried into the game itself as the Quakers looked for a way to spark their slumping offense.
When asked what they expected in Saturday’s game, OP defenseman TJ Maloney and forward Tyler Bienias didn’t say a word about the Flames.
“[We expected] to work hard because the last game against Joe’s, we worked hard, and we couldn’t put the puck away,” Maloney said. “So honestly, just work hard down low, beating up their D, and getting shots on net.”
“Picking up the pace a lot,” Bienias said. “We were behind the eight ball a lot. We’ve been working in practice, how to keep moving our feet, doing things at a higher pace, and I thought today we did that.”
Coach Josh Dannecker explained further.
“We knew that Williamsville East had some good players, and obviously number 7 [Mike Steffan] there,” Dannecker said. “They’ve got some solid players, and we just knew that if we played our game and put the pressure on them, that we would be successful … We’re a very quick team, a very fast team, and if we can put the pressure on the other team to respond to what we’re doing, we’re gonna be more successful. That was the message to the guys today: make Williamsville East have to adjust to us; make them have to adjust to our game, rather than us worry about what they’re doing.”
Defense had been strong all season, but Dannecker knew his team needed to do something more on offense. That was the focus for Saturday: use their notorious speed to chase down the puck and then get shots to the net.
“Instead of just playing great defense, turn the puck over, possess it, and then look to send our guys long, and dump it in deep and really chase after it, and I think that’s the difference,” Dannecker said. “And the other thing too is we’ve been playing a lot on the perimeter and not been getting to the net enough.”
It worked on Saturday, as Orchard Park’s offense clicked in a 6-1 win over Williamsville East. Maloney scored just 1:15 into the first to put the Quakers up early. Daniel Kritkausky, also a defenseman, and Zachary Biasillo picked up the assists.
“It was a great play by Dan,” Maloney said. “I went D to D, and then both of their wingers went to him, and then he slid it back and I was wide open. I could have walked in like 10 more feet, but just shooting it and I saw someone in front, and it was a good screen, so it went in.”
Late in the first period, Tyler Bienias added to the Orchard Park lead.
“I don’t know how it came to my stick, but I always get pucks to the net,” Bienias said. “That’s what I believe in, so I gotta shoot.”
It was exactly what Dannecker was looking for as part of the increased offense the Quakers needed.
“I think they recognize the fact that defensively, we’re strong, our goaltending’s been great,” Dannecker said. “They just gotta start putting the puck in the net, and we said, ‘Guys, if you go to the net, you’re gonna get rewarded,’ and so this little belief of going hard to the net and being rewarded with the goals we scored today, I think that’s gonna carry over, hopefully for the rest of the season.”
Bienias’ goal stood as the game winner when Williamsville East’s Sam Pastore cut into the Quakers’ lead in the second period, but the Quakers also scored four more goals in addition to Bienias’; Cam Peters and Kevin Collins scored in the second, and Ryan Niles and Jeff Palczewski each scored a goal in the third.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself to score, so it’s always nice to get the game-winning goal,” Bienias said. “But we did a lot of good things today team wise. So it was good to get the game-winning goal, but it was a team effort.”
Orchard Park’s defense didn’t take the day off either. It allowed just 18 shots on goal, and Maloney was excited to talk about what worked for him and his fellow defensemen on Saturday and how much they’ve improved over the course of the season.
“Our man-to-man coverage down low,” Maloney said. “It started off okay, we were okay at it, it wasn’t too bad, but now, the last two games, and the game against Joe’s, we were all over them down low. All their shots, [Tom] Held could see perfectly. There was nobody screening, so it was our man-to-man down low.”
And the goaltending by Tom Held was the final piece to the puzzle on Saturday as almost everything seemed to go the Quakers’ way.
“Tommy’s been great, and [Patrick]《Finn too, when he’s had his opportunities, so goaltending’s been really solid and I’ve been really happy with the way they’ve played,” Dannecker said. “The goal for us is to play, as a team, the full game, and I think we kinda put it together today. We had great defense, great goaltending, we crashed the net. I thought we did everything we needed to do today.”
With just a few league games left, including one against Hamburg on Monday, the Quakers found their complete game at just the right time and hope it will continue through the rest of the season and into playoffs.
“We’re getting better — a lot better — and quick too, so we just gotta keep moving with this,” Maloney said. “It’s great because we’ve been in a little bit of a slump, but we have been getting better. We just haven’t been able to score, and now we just gotta keep moving forward. We have Hamburg Monday, and just keep going from there.”
“We talk about the playoffs and obviously trying to build to that point,” Dannecker said. “And I think this is the game that hopefully kinda turns that corner and gives you the confidence going into the rest of the season that we can finish the rest of the season and go in there on a good note.”
“We needed this,” Bienias said. “We’ve been talking about scoring goals, scoring goals, and having a full offensive and defensive game, and today we were able to do that.”