Some of the Hamburg and Frontier players have played together since they began their hockey careers at age 4. Many are still teammates on travel teams, and before Saturday’s game, seniors from both teams were honored.
But then it was time for each player to put friendships aside and instead use what he knew about his friends and travel teammates to his advantage as the puck dropped between Frontier and Hamburg on Saturday afternoon in Hamburg.
“I know a bunch of those guys,” said Hamburg junior forward Jason Delmont. “It’s fun playing them and everything, but we always gotta be ready. We gotta overlook or friendships while we’re on the ice and try to win. It’s always nice beating your friends from the other schools.”
“I play travel with Lucarelli and Dake, so we know what they’re made of, so it was just nice to come out and play against them,” said Frontier senior forward Tyler Flick. “You gotta put the friendship to the side during the game, so I hit ’em a couple times. It was nice, but we’re all friends off the ice.”
Before the division realignments that went into effect this season and put small school Hamburg in the same division as large school Frontier, the teams had never faced each other in league play. It’s just one of the things Hamburg coach John McFall enjoys about the realignments.
“These kids, a lot of them have grown up together,” McFall said. “A lot of them probably started beginner hockey here when they were 4 years old and played on the same House League teams, so you know they have a little extra incentive to play each other. I think it’s one of the best things with changing our divisions, was giving us the opportunity to play each other. That might have been on their minds when they did that; it’s been well worth it. Those were two great games we’ve had with them.”
In the first game earlier in the season, Frontier won in overtime. On Saturday, it was almost fitting that the game ended in a 3-3 tie. On senior day for both teams, both played well, and no one seemed too disappointed with the result.
“I expected the same kind of game we had last time, which is exactly what it was, except they didn’t score in overtime this time, and I was hoping it would have been us,” McFall said. “I think they were really up to play against us; we were really up to play against them. It’s that crosstown rivalry.”
Although Frontier won the earlier game, even Frontier coach Bob Klimowicz admitted that his Falcons were outplayed that night. Saturday was a different story.
“I thought this game, compared to last time, it was much more equal,” Klimowicz said. “The first time we played them, they dominated us. They out hit us, they out skated us, and if it wasn’t for Ryan Kaska in net for the first game, we would have never been close to winning that game in overtime. Today Ryan came up big a few times, but we got more pucks to the net, our forecheck was significantly better than it has been all year long, and we created turnovers and opportunities off of that. Their goaltender kicked out some rebounds to us, and we were able to capitalize on that, so I thought today was a much more equal game than the first time we played.”
Flick gave Frontier the first lead of the game 8:14 into the first after Hamburg captain Jason Lucarelli was called for elbowing. Lucarelli made up for his penalty by scoring 21 seconds later to tie the game at one.
But just over a minute later, Alex Huff scored to give Frontier the lead once more.
McFall didn’t think his team was quite ready at the beginning of the game, and he blamed the senior day festivities.
“Senior day activities added a little extra to everyone’s mind, mine included,” he said. “I thought Frontier had the energy level early, got that goal. We had a bad penalty, but we settled it down.”
In the second period, the Bulldogs were ready. Sophomore defenseman Owen Gonter tied the game just 45 seconds into the second, and just over four minutes later, Hamburg took a 3-2 lead on a breakaway goal by Delmont. Luck was on Delmont’s side as his shot hit the crossbar and then Kaska’s back before landing in the net.
“It was just a great pass from Milley,” Delmont said. “He put it through like three guys, through the defense, and I just kind of skated. And then, I was just trying to hit the net. I didn’t want to miss because that would have been pretty embarrassing if I missed the net … I did miss it too — it kind of ricocheted off the goalie. I’m happy that it went in. I’m pretty happy with it.”
And he was happy to give his team the lead.
“It was really nice,” Delmont said. “I really thought we were gonna hang on and get it, and it was really cool getting the go-ahead goal.”
For a while, it looked as though Hamburg would hang on for the win. While Frontier goaltender Ryan Kaska finished with 24 saves, Hamburg goalie Griffin Coppola finished with 30.
But the Falcons threw 33 shots at Coppola, and with just 3:33 remaining, another shot by Flick found its way past Coppola.
“I can’t give myself the credit on that,” Flick said. “That was all [Jake] Watkins. He put it right in front, gave it to me — it was there so I just had to finish on that.”
“I don’t know what happened, but they just kind of got a lucky bounce that just kinda went in,” Delmont said. “We just didn’t play very well in the defensive zone. Griff stood on his head the entire game, and we just kind of let him down there.”
Through overtime, both teams were strong defensively. Kaska made three saves while the Hamburg defense didn’t allow a shot on goal. Neither team was able to get that elusive fourth goal, but both were satisfied — for the time being — with a point.
“After we tied it, we wanted to get the ball rolling, get another one, but it was nice to get the tie,” Flick said. “It was definitely better than a loss, especially on senior night.”
“It’s a big point, helps us work our way up the standings,” Delmont said. “Try to get better every game.”
“We were able to get the lead, and once again we lost that lead in the third, but we’re learning how to play the game and learning how to win and gain points,” McFall said. “That’s a big point for us in our standings, so we’re happy with it overall. We missed out on the opportunity to win the game, but we’ll take the way we played today.”
The tie gave Hamburg a one-point lead over rival Williamsville East in Division 2, which could be the difference between the No. 2 seed (and a first-round bye) and the No. 5 seed in the small school playoffs.
“[Hamburg and Williamsville East] each have three games left, and we play each other the last game, and we both have tough games,” McFall said. “We’ve got Clarence and St. Joe’s before we play each other, and I think they’ve got Frontier and Timon, so I’m kind of hoping Frontier gives them the same kind of game they gave us, and I know Timon will play them tough, so it’s gonna come down to that last game, most likely, and that second seed’s important.”
Both coaches took away positives in the way each team has developed over the course of the season. Klimowicz had three lines going, and he was very happy with the way all three played.
“This is the first time that really all three lines played a solid game,” Klimowicz said. “Everybody had their moments of playing well, so our nine forwards — that’s one reason why I didn’t get my fourth line out there, because we were rolling pretty good. I hate to break up that momentum. The Linsley line and the Beamish line, they played well, they had their scoring opportunities as well, and they played a better game in the defensive zone … Some of our elder defensemen — Huff, Baker, Piniewski, played solid on the back end. It was a good team effort.”
McFall mentioned a few defensive defensemen who don’t get the recognition they often deserve but played a solid game once again on Saturday.
“Erik Szabala, No. 2 for us, senior defenseman — no assists or points, but he just doesn’t get beat,” McFall said. “He settles that puck down. Couple of juniors, Bartoo and Iafallo on defense, same type of thing. I just heard a comment on the bench of one of the forwards going, ‘Bartoo’s so smart out there.’ They’ve listened and learned, and they settle that puck down, and they battle hard. They’re not getting the offensive points, but they’re defensive defensemen, and that’s been huge because I try to keep our goals against down. We know if they get beat we’ve got Coppola back there, but those guys, they don’t get the accolades, so today they stood out, I thought. They played well.”
Both teams are right back at it Sunday afternoon. Frontier is scheduled to play Kenmore East at 1 pm at Buffalo State College, and Hamburg is scheduled to face off against Clarence at 3 pm, also at Buffalo State. Both teams hope to take the positive strides they made on Saturday into Sunday’s games and through the remainder of the season.
“We just gotta play like we did today,” Delmont said. “Clarence is a good team as well, and we just gotta play our A game and see what happens.”
“Moving forward, we definitely want to keep winning,” said Flick. “We’ve had a rough season so far, so we definitely just want to build off of this and keep the ball rolling.”