By now, Friday’s win might finally feel real to Kenmore West. But after three hours and 20 minutes of hockey on Friday night, the players were in shock — and on top of the world.
Three hours and 20 minutes. Four 7.5-minute overtime periods. A shootout.
The final score after all of that was 2-1, and it was an hour and a half from the time that Jacob Thomason tied the game for Lew-Port until Kenmore West goalie Ryan Mooney made the final save of the shootout.
“No words can describe how I’m feeling right now,” Mooney said. “Amazed. Shocked. Disbelief. It’s just crazy. I never thought this would play out like that.”
Way back in the first period, Anthony Tanyi had scored to give the Blue Devils the first lead of the game.
“I wasn’t even really thinking much,” Tanyi said. “I was just standing in the right place at the right time; it goes in off your body and you just take it.”
As the game went on, Tanyi wondered whether his goal would be enough. But it was — at least to carry his team through four overtimes and into the shootout.
“You always gotta have that goal,” Tanyi said. “You gotta be prepared, ready for anything. I thought they came out hard, so I was expecting them to score another goal, but it’s good to have that one there to protect you.”
Save after save by Mooney on one end and Anthony Santarosa on the other end carried both teams through what Lew-Port coach Kevin Kirsch called “one for the ages.” But both teams were able to stay focused.
“It’s all through the season: just hard work, practice, everything,” said Tanyi. “We always worked on this — overtimes — to stay ready and always be on our game.”
“It was no doubt the longest game of my life,” said Mooney. “It was just unreal. It was one of the most intense evenly matched games I’ve probably ever played in our probably ever will. It was just a great start for the playoffs. I just kept my cool, sharp focus, and a lot of belief in my teammates because I knew we could do it.”
The game began around 8 pm, and finally, at almost 11 pm, it all came down to a shootout — and Kenmore West sophomore Owen Green.
“I got really nervous at first, and then I realized we do it in practice a lot and it’s not that hard, so I just went, scored,” Green said. “It was pretty good.”
When Mooney saw Green score, “I was ecstatic. That was unreal.”
No one else found the back of the net, as had been the theme all night long, and finally it came down to one last save for Mooney. And he was ready.
“I was talking to the ref before the shot, and he was telling me if I saved it, then that was the win and we would advance,” Mooney said. “And as soon as I made that save and I saw the ref throw the no goal sign, I was just… oh man. It was intense.”
He was immediately surrounded, and Blue Devils players piled into the ice and on top of each other.
“It was loud,” Tanyi said. “You couldn’t hear anything. Everyone was just screaming. It was a fun time, fun time. Locker room, same. It all just carried through — the energy, screaming. Everyone’s enjoying it right now.”
And aside from Mooney, the hero Friday night was sophomore defenseman Owen Green.
“Feels really good to get the win for the seniors,” Green said. “We’ve been working all season towards it. Just feels really good. I was just really tired the whole time. It was 1-1, tight game going back and forth. Their goalie played really good. So did their team. We’re just glad to get the win.”
“There’s really no words for it,” said Tanyi. “Winning in a shootout in a playoff game — it’s insane. You really can’t think much. It’s crazy.”
Even Kenmore West coach Rob Roszak was in disbelief, and it took him a couple minutes to find the words for what he wanted to say.
“I don’t know what to say,” he began. “I think these guys played hard the whole game. I think we had chances to win it in overtime, and we just couldn’t put the puck in the net. Comes down to a shootout. Shoutout’s just the luck of the draw, and we practiced shootout every so often in practice, and Owen’s definitely one of our better shooters, so it’s hard to say you’re gonna put a sophomore out there to take a penalty shot in a big game like that, but he came up with the big goal for us, and Ryan shut the door on them. I can’t express my happiness right now.”
Kenmore West’s biggest challenge yet comes today. At 1 pm, the Blue Devils are scheduled to face off against crosstown rival Kenmore East. But with Friday’s win and a couple of close games last year, their confidence is as high as can be.
“Traditionally, when they’ve been the better team the last couple seasons, we’ve played them close games,” Roszak said. “Last year, we tied them and it was a one-goal game. So obviously they’re the favorites going into Sunday, but I think that we could surprise them and come up with another victory. I think that we showed heart tonight. We showed not giving up tonight, and we showed team unity tonight, which I’m glad. We could have easily fell apart at some points, but everybody played their hearts out every shift, and I’m very satisfied about how we played tonight.”
“That’s gonna be a big one,” said Mooney. “That’s gonna be our biggest game of the season, obviously. We’re ready. That’s all we can say is we’re ready.”
“Kenmore East, they’re a hard team,” Tanyi said. “I think we’re ready for them. They’re gonna come out really hard, but I think learning from today that if we bear down, we skate — we could take ’em.”
Owen Green’s shootout winner:
@IcingTheFed pic.twitter.com/b2KUZrFVd9
— Tim Seyfang (@TSeyfang) February 20, 2016