It was Clarence captain Randy Felber who scored the game-winning goal three and a half minutes into the second overtime on Saturday night, but the Red Devils wouldn’t have made it that far if not for goaltender Jack Niesyty and his 41 saves.
For the third consecutive year, Lancaster and Clarence met in the large school quarterfinals. And for the third consecutive year, Clarence came away with the win. This time, it was 1-0 in double overtime as neither side could find the back of the net until then.
Niesyty made sure Lancaster never did.
“He always does his job,” Felber said. “Today, he pulled out a great shutout.”
Clarence coach Rick Brooks feels fortunate to have three strong goaltenders, but Niesyty has outshined them this season as he grew stronger and stronger as the season progressed.
“Jack certainly is on the rails, if you know what I mean by that — when the train’s on the rails and it’s rolling ahead,” Brooks said. “And he seems to be in a groove and certainly didn’t make any mistakes tonight. He played not only good goaltending but played playoff goaltending, where he covered the puck, he produced whistles when we needed them. He did other things that are very important.”
“I was thinking, just basically hold my boys in there,” Niesyty said. “That’s all I had to do. I came in here knowing it was gonna be a close one, especially against Lancaster. The past two years we’ve played ’em, so just kinda stop everything that came towards me, help the boys out.”
Through three periods, one overtime period, and three and a half minutes of another, Lancaster goaltender Sean Lenhard made 27 saves to match the zeros Niesyty put up. But in that second overtime, Randy Felber’s shot bounced over Lenhard’s outstretched arm and into the net.
“It’s always a good feeling, getting the double overtime game winner, being able to play next week for the second playoff game,” Felber said. “Hopefully we win that one and take it downtown.”
One save in the first period stood out in Niesyty’s mind after the game — a pad save on a pass across. But to stay focused through the rest of the game, Niesyty’s secret was to not be too serious.
“I always try to joke around, try not to be too serious because if I’m too serious, it’s just not good for me,” he said. “So I kinda stayed loose, just tried to have fun, just tried to play my heart out.”
And that’s exactly what he did. After the game, Niesyty was all smiles.
“I feel great, to be honest,” he said. “Nothing really else to say. It feels good to win, especially in double overtime, so it feels pretty good.”
Niesyty had three shutouts during the regular season and was more than happy to add to that with a shutout win in the playoffs.
“Feels amazing,” he said. “Just another shutout. It’s another great moment, especially being a senior, to get the win so we can keep going.”
For the rest of the team, they were tired but pushed on, as Felber explained.
“It was tough,” he said. “You gotta stick with it, keep your legs moving. After two overtimes, you’re pretty much dead tired, but you just gotta stick with it, and it looks like we did.”
And that, along with the way the Red Devils listened to their coaches and adjusted, was what impressed Brooks the most.
“Perseverance,” Brooks said. “Lancaster outshot us the first and second period for sure, but I thought we got stronger and faster and more determined as the game went on, and anyone would like that. They also started to respond nicely to instructions at the bench on how to change things up, how to do things different, and how to make adjustments in the game to be more successful, and that was gratifying.”
“We worked as a team,” said Felber. “We got some good offense out there. We definitely played some solid defense.”
Williamsville North is the No. 1 seed in this year’s large school playoffs and hasn’t lost in regulation since the second game of the season. The Red Devils understand they have a difficult task on Wednesday night, but they’re optimistic.
“That’s definitely gonna be a really tough game,” Niesyty said. “We just gotta keep working and try to put the puck in the net more.”
“It’s gonna be a good game,” Felber said. “We’re definitely gonna have to pull out a game like this or maybe even better because they’re a really good team.”
“Anything’s possible with a dollar and a dream, right?” quipped Brooks. “But exactly that: if you have good team defense and a solid goaltender, anything can happen.”