Lancaster coach Kevin Miller was unhappy with his team’s effort last weekend in losses to Canisius and St. Joe’s. He took the skill of those teams into account, but he knew that his team had more than what it showed in a 6-3 loss to Canisius and a 7-1 loss to St. Joe’s.
“Let’s just say they didn’t see the pucks in practice the next day, and we kinda got our message clear in terms of putting forth a hundred and ten percent effort,” Miller said. “When we went last weekend and we lost to Canisius, we lost to St. Joe’s, we felt as coaches the effort wasn’t there a hundred percent. And in this league, if it’s not there, you’re gonna get eaten up pretty good out there. And granted, Joe’s is a great team and Canisius is a good team and every team is trying to get themselves situated for the end of the season, so we made a couple switches, and let’s just say we worked them pretty hard and really intense over the past week here.”
The tough week of practices led up to Saturday’s game against Kenmore East, another highly skilled team, but this team the effort was there and made all the difference in a 3-1 win over the Bulldogs.
“Their effort was great today, and we reiterated some systems that we have in place, and the boys played a complete game,” Miller said. “They had a really good couple penalty kills that they needed, and as a team they did a great job.”
Miller and the Lancaster players knew that Saturday’s game would be another tough one, but they were prepared.
“They’re a good squad,” Ryan Szczecinski said. “They beat Hamburg, beat a bunch of other teams, so we knew it’d be a tough game.”
“We know they had a few good players, and we had to bear down on them, lock them up, and that was basically it,” added Nick Speyer.
“Kenmore East is always a good team, and they had a couple top players in the league with [Trevor] Pray and 18 [AJ Marinelli] and number 8 [Anthony Tulipane], and their defense is solid,” Miller said. “They’re a really good team, and for us to even be in a close game with them, it’s a credit to our players because we had a tough weekend last weekend, and we had a really good preparation week, and fortunately we were able to not only compete with ’em but beat ’em. So it’s a credit to the boys in the locker room.”
AJ Marinelli gave Kenmore East the first lead of the game with a power play goal 3:27 into the second period. But Lancaster escaped further damage in the second, including killing a four-minute major with 6:39 left in the period.
At almost the same time in the third period, Lancaster broke through and found the back of the net. With just 6:19 left to play, Szczecinski tied the game, and less than two minutes later, he put his team up 2-1 with another goal.
“Started off with a big hit by Donald Horbett and great goaltending by Sean Lenhard, but just, pucks go in the net,” Szczecinski said. “Shoot the puck at the net; it goes in. It happens, right?”
Shawn Kross completed the scoring with 3:18 left to play to complete the 3-1 lead.
Speyer assisted Szczecinski’s go-ahead goal that stood as the game winner, but he did more than just that to impress his coach on Saturday.
“Speyer stepped up tonight,” Miller said. “He’s one of those guys: he’s a grinder, he’s a blue collar player out there, and he was able to get the puck to Sezzy for our second goal. Some of these players, they should get credit but maybe they don’t see it on a stat sheet, but in terms of effort or drawing a penalty, we felt that was a good time for him to get a little attention.”
Speyer was just happy to see his team wake up as the game went on and come away with a solid team win.
“I think it was more of a team effort,” he said. “We kinda woke up after the first, so that was solid right there. It was skating, moving the puck, quick breakouts, just really wore them down.”
Lancaster’s next game is scheduled for Sunday afternoon against Hamburg, a team that has drastically improved as the season has progressed and is coming off a win over Orchard Park. Once again, effort will be crucial.
“Tomorrow we see Hamburg, and Hamburg’s a solid team as well,” Miller said. “They’re one of those teams that, they’ve been playing better as the season goes on. If we’re able to come out tomorrow the same way we did today, good things should happen, and anything less than that, we’re gonna come out with a loss.”
But for Saturday night, Lancaster had a win to enjoy.
“That’s solid right there,” Szczecinski said. “Solid win.”