St. Francis has won three straight, and everything seems to be clicking for the Red Raiders as they learn to play as a team, from goaltending and defense to just enough offense to come away with a few wins. On Sunday, St. Francis defeated North Tonawanda 2-1, and the game started off as the battle the Red Raiders expected.
“I thought it was gonna be a tough game,” St. Francis coach Paul Jackson said. “All of them are tough. We have to play as a team to win these games, and the boys are starting to do that. They play the system, they pick up for each other, they back check hard. Our goaltending is our strength, and we’re building off of that.”
“We knew it was gonna be a tough game,” Oldacre said. “We knew 24 [Curtis Vivian] and 16 [Zack Warner] were their big guns, so we wanted to shut them down quick and early.”
The first period was a tight defensive battle in which neither team scored or even managed to get very many shots on net. Jackson said the two teams “mirrored each other a little bit,” and through the first, that was enough for both NT and St. Francis to keep the other scoreless.
In the second period, St. Francis took a 2-0 lead with goals by Joe Krasinski and Jay Oldacre. Jackson has come to expect not just goals from the two junior forwards, but also leadership and all-around solid hockey players.
“What I like about Joey is he’s got a complete game,” Jackson said. “He forechecks hard; he finds the soft part of the ice. When he is open, he gets a pass. Oldie made that pass back across from the other side, from behind the net to him, and he got the goalie moving and opened it up, but Joey put it where it had to be. It was a really nice shot, and Oldie’s shot also is a really good shot … Both of them were really good, and we count on them for some offense, and they’re providing it; they’re really coming through. Oldie, really in the last four games, has really improved his game quite a bit. He seems to be comfortable on the line he’s on, and he back checks hard. He’s a complete player — so is Joey, so it’s nice to have those two on our team.”
“I know that I try to get the puck deep and work hard, me and Oldie both,” Krasinski said. “Hopefully players look up to us and follow that.”
“Coming into the season, I expected to put up points and help the team,” Oldacre said. “Do my job but also play good defensively. Goals are good, but if you’re on the ice for 100 goals against, you’re obviously not doing your team any good, so yeah, the goals are nice, but I really pride myself on playing good defense too.”
On Sunday, Oldacre was key in both goals. He assisted Krasinski’s goal 1:02 into the second period before scoring his own.
“I had just got on the ice,” Oldacre explained the first goal. “Puck kind of squirted off the wall, went behind the net. Heard Joe call my name. Pivoted a little bit, took a quick look, saw Joe was wide open, and he did a good job of just finishing the puck in the net.”
“Oldie had a nice look behind the net,” Krasinski said. “Great pass; a lot of credit goes to him.”
It was 12 minutes later when Oldacre scored unassisted to give his team a 2-0 lead.
“I was at the end of my shift,” Oldacre explained. “Matt Songin — great forecheck. Same with Adam Gier. Forced the guy, I was just creeping in the high slot, and picked it off, shot the puck, rebound came. Kid was probably at the end of his shift too, tried running around the boards. I got it and just fired it on the net. It just took a good bounce and went in.”
Although NT fought hard through much of the game, the Lumberjacks’ short bench on Sunday — just 12 players, not including goalies — wasn’t enough to keep up with the Red Raiders.
“We knew they were kind of short, so we wanted to get the puck deep, grind on their defensemen, get them tired, and they started clutching and grabbing in the first, so we knew we were getting on them,” Oldacre said. “And then in the second and third, they were just dead. They had no gas left, no fight left in them. They got the late one, but two goals too late.”
Dylan Folger scored for the Lumberjacks with 50 seconds remaining in the third period, but like Oldacre said, it was too little, too late, and the Red Raiders came away with the win that added to their win streak and improved their record in league play to 4-2-1.
“We’re on a streak,” Oldacre said. “Boys are feeling good. We got another one tomorrow against West Seneca West. That’s gonna be a good game for us. We’re gonna have to get the dub and pull three-and-oh through the weekend.”
“It was definitely a good team win,” Krasinski said. “We’re finally getting all four lines to go together and trying to make tomorrow a four-game win streak.”
“Like we do every game, it’s kind of a cliché, but I told them, ‘Every shift, you gotta win every shift; every time you’re on the ice, you have to try to improve your game,'” Jackson said. “The boys are coming together pretty nice. I think we’re on a little bit of a streak here, so they’re picking each other up, they’re buying into the system, and they’re working hard.”