Hamburg seems to have figured out how to use adversity to its advantage. The Bulldogs even go so far as to hope that each opponent will come out with an intensity that they’ll need to match in order to be successful.
“We were hoping that they would come out intense and they did, because when teams come out more intense, that makes us match their intensity and gets us skating,” Hamburg assistant coach Gavin Hillery explained.
Hillery was referring to Sunday’s 4-3 come-from-behind win over Lancaster, in which Mike Boyd won the game seconds after a hit along the boards that could have been called a hit from behind or contact to the head but wasn’t.
Hamburg spent all but the last five minutes of the game playing catch up to Lancaster. A scoreless first left the Bulldogs feeling more lucky than anything.
“We came out slow for sure,” said senior defenseman Brian Kazmierczak. “They took it to us. They had the momentum, but I think after a while we just got a good talk from our coach and picked it up and ended up coming out with the win.”
“They were very physical to start, so we had to match that,” senior forward Bobby Slemmer said. “I think they were way more physical than us in the first period, but we got lucky with it coming out being zero-zero.”
“I thought we were fortunate to get out of the first without any goals against,” said Hillery. “Didn’t really play our game. Then we regrouped after the first, talked to the boys and got ’em going. In the second, they played more to their game, and in between periods after the second, we got ’em going, and they came out, they worked hard, and matched all their goals.”
Lancaster came out fast in the second and took the lead on a Brandon Voight power play goal just 27 seconds into the period. With five and a half minutes left, Boyd scored his first of the game to even the score at one.
“[Owen] Gonter passed it to me, gave me the breakaway, and I just took the backhand and ended up getting the goal,” Boyd said.
In the first minute of the third, Mathieu Rachiele gave Lancaster the lead once more with another power play goal after Kazmierczak received a four-minute major and game misconduct for a hit from behind late in the second.
Jason Lucarelli and his linemates Josh Dake and Slemmer continued to produce, and it was Lucarelli who scored to tie the game less than three minutes after Rachiele’s goal.
“I was forechecking and their defenseman kinda just made a bad pass into me, and I just freed it up for Dake, and he put it away with the backhand,” Slemmer explained.
When Shawn Kross gave Lancaster the lead once more just less than five minutes later with a shorthanded goal, Dake and his line once again tied the game less than a minute later.
“It was kinda the same thing. It kinda came up to me in the slot, and I kinda just found Lucarelli,” Slemmer said. “I just get used to where they are on the ice.”
Again, adversity sparked the Bulldogs.
“Plays like that that can swing a game, and this game, there was plenty of lead changes,” Hillery said. “Momentum swung both ways for both teams, and we knew that they were a tough team, and they played hard, and just lucky that we — happy, not lucky — that we came out on top.”
And less than a minute later, Boyd was hit hard along the boards. He didn’t wait too long for a penalty to be called; instead, he responded by scoring the go-ahead goal with 4:28 left to play.
“I got really excited on that one,” Hillery said. “He got knocked down along the boards, and he’s a short kid, and I thought that we were gonna get a head-checking penalty because he got hit up high. I was watching to see if he stayed down, and he got right up, then picked off the pass, right in the middle, right by the blue line, and skated in and put a nice shot on net for his second of the game. It was nice to see.”
“I got hit from behind,” Boyd said. “They didn’t call the penalty. I came back up and tried to pass it back over — I think it was Gonter — but then it ended up bouncing back to me, and I put it through his legs, and it went in.”
The Legends didn’t go down easily and played hard for the remainder of the game, but Hamburg held on for the win.
“I was pumped up,” Boyd said. “We were up with not much time left. They have a good team. We held it to ’em, took the win.”
“We had Mikey with two good goals, and that really fired us up,” Slemmer said. “And I was getting kinda nervous at the end because they were all over us, but we just held our own and made it happen.”
Boyd mentioned the team’s success against Division 1 teams lately. Hamburg came into the season as a Division 2 team to face some of the larger schools for the first time, and all three wins have come against Division 1 teams: first Niagara Wheatfield, then Orchard Park, and now Lancaster. The Bulldogs also have a tie against Division 1 Williamsville North, which hasn’t lost a game since dropping the first two of the season.
“We started off slow early in the season, and now we’re starting to go against these Division 1 teams,” Boyd said. “We’re starting to beat ’em; we’re three wins against Division 1 teams. We’re doing good now, I think. We’re a smaller team. We just gotta battle every game, try and beat these larger teams … and we are, and we’re coming out with the wins.”
Monday night, Hamburg is scheduled to face Timon at 8 pm. It’ll be another challenge, but the Bulldogs have reason to be confident as they continue to improve.
“Each game has gotta be our best game, and today wasn’t our best game, but we’ll definitely come out strong against Timon tomorrow, and we’ll be ready to play,” Hillery said. “We kinda let one go against them earlier in the year. We didn’t exactly play our best game, but the nice thing is we get to play them twice and beat ’em tomorrow — hopefully.”