When a hockey team goes up against the No. 1 team in the state and comes away with a 3-2 loss that included a scoreless first period, there isn’t too much to be disappointed about. Orchard Park coach Josh Dannecker knew that after a loss to St. Joe’s on Thursday night.
“St. Joe’s, they’re a quality team, and they’re a good team,” Dannecker said. “And I think we’ve been playing much better as of late, and I think again, we started off a little slow, but I thought we hung around and gave ’em a run. They’ve been playing great hockey, we’ve been playing good hockey, so it’s two good teams. You can’t really hang your head after that kind of effort.”
St. Joe’s coach Rich Crozier admitted that Orchard Park’s style of play frustrated his team, and the larger Olympic Rink at the Northtown Center didn’t help matters.
“They play a frustrating style,” Crozier said. “They were looking to catch us off guard, and they do some long passes and spread the ice on us, and it often resulted in icings, so it was a really slow paced game. We’re high intensity, a lot of speed, getting the puck in and controlling the puck, not a lot of whistles. We don’t like a lot of whistles. We had the shots at 10 to three in the first, so that’s good if you outshoot a team 10 to three, but we came out of it feeling frustrated.”
And the Quakers’ goaltender, Tom Held, was as strong as he’s been all season in net. The official scorers had the shots at 8-5 in the first period and 21-15 overall. Held was credited with 18 saves.
“I think defensively, we played well,” Dannecker said. “Tommy played great. The couple goals, the one kid was standing right in front of the net. The other one went off Carney’s pad and deflected in. We didn’t get beat with any easy goals. It was just a couple of flukes, and that’s what happens, but he played another solid game for us, so we can’t really get upset with that either.”
Griffen LoVullo finally broke the scoreless tie and gave the Marauders a 1-0 lead with 3:01 left in the second period. Goals by Brad Herlan and Nate Berke just 31 seconds apart early in the third put St. Joe’s up 3-0 before the Quakers began chipping away at the lead.
Ryan Niles scored for Orchard Park with 7:02 left in the third, and TJ Maloney cut the deficit to 3-2 with 5:10 left to play with a power play goal.
St. Joe’s held on for the win, though. For Dannecker and his Quakers, it was a confidence booster and something to learn from moving forward.
“The best thing about playing a team like St. Joe’s is, you’re gonna get a playoff type atmosphere,” Dannecker said. “So for us to be in a tight game with a great team leading up to a couple games before the playoffs, I think that’s only gonna help us going forward, and we’re gonna try to use this to learn from and kinda grow and get better as a team.”
For Crozier, he’s doing what he can to keep things fresh and keep the intensity up. It’s February. The game against Orchard Park was his team’s third-to-last game of the season. The Marauders are the No. 1 ranked large school in the state, and they’ve already clinched the No. 1 seed going into the Section VI Catholic School playoffs.
“It’s a tough time of year,” Crozier said. “Nothing’s really fresh anymore. We’re at practice number 45. This was game 22 for us. They’ve heard the Coach Crozier speech. February’s tough. You have to stay intense. You have to be focused, and you have to get better.”
His job isn’t easy as he tries to keep his team motivated through the last few games of the season, but Crozier knows it’s necessary for the finish he and his team want to this season. The No. 1 state ranking and the No. 1 playoff seed are just the beginning, they hope.
“I’m not gonna be sitting at that banquet talking about how we were number one in the state the last two weeks in January,” Crozier said. “That’s not what I’m gonna be speaking about at the banquet. That’s just not happening this year. I’m sure of it. I’m just not gonna do it. I told these guys, you have to play the percentages, and the percentage is this: if we play our best hockey, that gives us the best opportunity to reach our goals this year, so that’s what I’m gonna insist upon. That’s my job as a coach. Everybody’s like, ‘Oh, everything’s good for Coach Crozier; how lucky is he?’ Well yeah, I got a great team. I got a great program. But it’s a lot of hard work, and my job is very difficult right now, and that is, I have to have these guys playing their best hockey every single night throughout this month. We have to be that much better a week from now, two weeks from now, three weeks from now. We’ve gotta be that much better, and that’s the plan. I’m gonna do everything in my power to make sure it happens.”
Herlan is excited about the No. 1 seed going into the playoffs.
“It’s awesome,” he said. “It’s a nice relief to know that you’re number one in the playoffs and you can have a lot more fun playing through the season number one.”
But both Herlan, a senior, and junior Berke, recognize the importance of keeping the intensity up through the rest of the season. From practices to everything they do off the ice, they stay close and work hard.
“We’re actually trying to keep the intensity going, like having hard practices, not relaxing or thinking it’s just gonna be easy to finish out number one in the state,” Herlan said.
“We always work hard in practices and just before games,” said Berke. “We have a nice little warmup, and we just stick together. We’re always a team. We’re always near each other.”