Williamsville South’s fifth-to-last game of the season came Saturday afternoon against Niagara Falls, the only team the Billies had already faced once this season. The first meeting resulted in a 8-1 Williamsville South win in what was a physical game.
On Saturday, the Billies expected a similar game.
“We knew it was gonna be a physical game,” Williamsville South head coach Sean Green said. “Last game we played up there, and even though the score was eight to one, it wasn’t indicative of the play. It was back-and-forth; we happened to capitalize on our chances. I think today’s game was exactly the same way. I think we had five power play goals, so I think that’s one of the things that we talked about, was play hard, play tough, and then take advantage of opportunities.”
“We expected a hard game,” South captain Jeff Browne said. “We knew they were gonna want to come back after we beat them last time, so we knew they were gonna come back and try to beat us. So we expected a tough game, chippy game, but it was a good one and that’s what we expected coming in.”
“I knew it was gonna be a physical game, and our discipline was gonna be a big factor,” said Alex Fix. “I took two penalties, which were kinda bad for the team, but ended up coming out on top.”
Both teams struggled with discipline on Saturday, and the resulting plethora of penalties led to four Williamsville South power play goals in a 7-1 win. One of those power play goals was scored by Fix, and he added two more even strength goals to complete his second hat trick of the season. Browne finished the night with a goal and three assists.
“We kinda thought they were an undisciplined team last time we played them, so we tried to let them take penalties and use our power play, which really worked tonight,” Browne said.
Williamsville South didn’t score its first goal until the second period, and Niagara Falls had a 1-0 lead after one period thanks to a Michael Laurrie goal.
But once they started scoring, the Billies didn’t stop. Lorenzo Zendano opened the scoring just 1:28 into the second, and his teammates followed with four more goals in less than seven minutes. Fix’s first of the game came just 13 seconds later, followed by a Jeff Browne goal and two more by Fix.
“One or two of them might have been on the power play, which we’ve been working on a lot this year,” Fix said. “Just hard work and being in the right spot and just getting ’em home.”
When he scored his third of the game just past the halfway point of the second, Fix didn’t realize at first that he had a hat trick.
“I didn’t really know at first,” Fix said. “I kinda just thought, ‘Another goal,’ but I guess it actually means something now.”
Browne credited the success of South’s power play for the high offensive output on Saturday. Mason Cool and Brendan DesRosiers added power play goals in the third period to complete the 7-1 win.
“Power play; that’s all it was,” he said. “We had a lot of power play goals tonight and a lot of chances, so we worked the puck around really well and found openings and put the puck in the net.”
But Saturday’s seven goals were nothing out of the ordinary this season for the Billies. It was the sixth game in which they’d scored seven or more goals, including nine in one game and ten in another. Fix and the South coaches credited chemistry, unselfish play, and doing the little things right.
“I think our speed is really a factor for us, and I think we move the puck really well, and we’re getting a lot of chemistry with our lines now, so it’s just going really well,” Fix said.
“One of our goals when we started the season was to really play together as a team, and no individual get the credit, and I think they’re really taking it to heart and buying into it,” Green said. “The guys on the bench are just as excited as the guys that are on the ice scoring, and they understand that it’s a five-man unit if things are happening on the ice to score the goals, and I think that’s one of our keys out there. They don’t care who gets any individual success; it’s all team, team, team, and I think that they’re really buying into that … and guys that are doing the things that don’t necessarily show up on the score sheet are what’s causing the play … And we’re capitalizing on our opportunities. Our goal scorers are scoring, which is always good.”
“We’re doing the little things right, which we haven’t done in a while,” added assistant coach Scott Horton said. “At the start of the season, we had things to tune up. We have a long way to go, we have a lot of improvements to still make, and we’re gonna work on some things, but we’re proud of where the guys are at.”
Through the remainder of the season, the Billies will continue to work to keep their offense up, and they’ll also work hard to be more disciplined. Penalties didn’t cost them on Saturday — they did give Niagara Falls five power plays, in addition to three coincidental penalties — but it could in the future, and they’re aware of that.
“We’re gonna work on our discipline too after this,” Browne said. “It’s gonna be a tough stretch here, the last four games, so we’re gonna try to get as many wins as we can and try to seed as high as we can for the playoffs.”
“We’re just taking it one game at a time,” Green said. “Obviously positioning is huge for the playoffs coming up, so some people are starting to scoreboard watch a little bit, and we’re just trying to keep the guys focused one game at a time.”
Williamsville South’s next game is scheduled for Monday night against West Seneca East, a team that scored seven goals in its most recent win as well.