Talk about adversity.
The North Tonawanda hockey team is without its top line for the remainder of the season as the three were among several North Tonawanda High School student athletes suspended from their respective sports for the next 10 weeks.
But that’s not what this story is about. Left behind is a group of talented hockey players that isn’t ready to say goodbye to this season. The remaining players knew that the remainder of the season wouldn’t be easy, but they knew they had the potential to step up in the absence of those three players and still make something happen.
“Just gotta overcome adversity and you gotta play as a team, and you can’t rely on three players to win the games for you the whole year,” said junior forward Andrew Horn. “You gotta come out and play everybody. You gotta work as a team, you gotta make plays as a team, and you gotta come together as a team.”
As a junior, Horn felt that it was especially important for him to lead by example.
“Everybody had to step up, but especially me since I’m a junior,” Horn said. “It’s on the older kids to step up and get everybody else to step up.”
Two of the players no longer on the team were captains, but one captain, defenseman Kyle Crooks, is still playing hockey.
“We knew we still had a lot of skill on the team, a lot of potential, kids who haven’t got a lot of ice time this year,” Crooks said. “So they went and played their hardest and showed up for the team.”
Crooks referred to Thursday night’s game against Kenmore West. Although the Lumberjacks fell behind 3-0 early in the game and trailed for almost the entire game, Horn’s goal with just six seconds left, his second of the game, tied the score at five. North Tonawanda came away with a tie that, in light of all that has happened, felt like a win.
“I kept telling everybody that we’re still in this game, and we all knew that we could come back and win this game,” Horn said. “And we didn’t win, but it was definitely a good game, and we got the tie, so we could still definitely win the division if we come out the next two games.”
Jason Lindhurst scored in the second period to cut the deficit to 3-1, but the Blue Devils came back with another goal just 17 seconds later to retake a three-goal lead. Crooks and Horn each scored one in the second, and NT was down by just one going into the third.
When Kenmore West scored again with less than five minutes to go to take a 5-3 lead, it again looked like NT might be beat. But again, the Lumberjacks weren’t ready to be done.
They took a timeout with just more than three minutes to go, and NT coach Alan Zbytek talked things over with his team.
“He said that we can never give up, keep getting shots to the net, and our chances will come,” Crooks said.
But regarding the game and their current situation, Zbytek knew all he could do was talk. His team needed to make the decision on its own whether to give up or fight through adversity. But the players did listen to their coach.
“It was tremendous,” Zbytek said. “You can tell them, ‘You guys can step up and we can do it.’ If they believe you, I don’t know. But they did. As the game started going on and seeing the pressure that they were putting on the other team and then finally getting some goals and then generating chances late with pulling the goalie. I think that really jelled the rest of the team together, knowing that they can play and score goals. So it was great. Great emotional game for us. Even though it was five-five.”
Anthony Schiavone scored with exactly three minutes left, and Horn came through with six seconds left on the clock to tie the game.
“We got a burst of energy and I just told everyone, ‘We need to get the next one and tie it up to win this game,'” Horn said. “I didn’t see the clock at all. I wasn’t paying attention all game. That game flew by.”
Neither team scored through five minutes of overtime, but the NT locker room was in high spirits after the game. The players’ hard work and never-say-die attitude had paid off. They stopped Kenmore West from getting two points, and with two games remaining, the Lumberjacks still have a chance to win the division and earn the No. 4 seed in the playoffs.
Zbytek used the situation as a learning tool for his remaining players.
“It’s unfortunate, the seniors not being able to finish out their season and participate in senior night,” he said. “And we used it kind of as hopefully a learning tool for the younger kids to see how quickly things can change and get taken from you because everything’s not guaranteed, and it’s a privilege to play high school sports, and unfortunately if you make a simple mistake or you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, you could be caught up in it. So try to use it as, learn from other people’s mistakes, become wiser for it, and make good decisions when you might be put in a situation that’s similar.”
Thursday’s game was also a learning experience, as the come-from-behind tie showed the Lumberjacks that they could come back from everything and that each player needed to step up. Maybe they would have won with their star players, but as Horn explained, maybe the rest of the team wouldn’t have played as hard.
“You just gotta overcome it, and yeah, if we had those three players we definitely would have won this game, I think, if we came out the way we played today,” Horn said. “But you never know, we might not have came out the way we did. We might have came out and they might have just got the couple goals and we might have hung down instead of going after the win.”
“We knew when it was three-nothing that we just couldn’t give up because we knew from previous games that we can come back from anything, and we did that today,” said Crooks.
“Come back from anything.” That’s what NT did Thursday night. So how nice was it to get a point in light of all that’s happened?
Crooks stopped and smiled.
“I loved it,” he said. “It was awesome.”