As they’ve done all season, Orchard Park captains Jeff Palczewski and TJ Maloney came through for their team. In the Quakers’ first playoff game on Saturday, Palczewski scored a hat trick and Maloney scored twice and had two assists as the Quakers outscored Niagara Falls 7-2 for a quarterfinal win.
“I was talking to Coach Ferrentino and we were talking about who’s gonna get it done today, and I said, ‘Jeff’s been getting it done all year long,'” said Orchard Park coach Josh Dannecker. “And I had a good feeling about him in the way that he was just ready to go today. He was focused, and I thought that was good.”
And about Maloney, “TJ’s playing with a ton of confidence,” Dannecker said. “On the power play, he’s great. Obviously being a captain, a leader, you got your two captains really contributing today. You had TJ with four points, you had Jeff with three goals, so the leadership contributing and making the difference, that’s good for us.”
Through the first two periods, Palczewski scored twice and Niagara Falls’ Alex Hailey scored once to keep the game close. In the third, the Quakers broke through for five more goals. It started with Cam Peters scoring the kind of goal Dannecker has come to expect from him just 45 seconds into the third.
“We were talking in between the periods about what kind of goals we needed to score, and we needed to score those goals around the net, in front of the net,” Dannecker said. “And I was joking with Cam, I’m like, ‘Cam, come on, this is your kind of game. You need to get in front of the net!'”
“The dirty goals, yes, of course,” Peters said. “It was just going in hard to the net. Marshall [Cappelli] got the puck up, I knew he was gonna fire it, so it’s all about getting ready for that rebound, and it came out right to me, and it was an easy bury.”
Maloney scored the next two goals before Michael Strachan added one 6:51 into the third. He just did what his coach had reminded Peters to do — went to the net.
“We were getting shots on the net and I saw the rebound come out, and I just put it in,” Strachan said. “We were just getting pucks to the net and playing good zone coverage, and it worked out well for us.”
“Whether it’s Strachan or Cam, going to the net, fighting for those tough goals, we needed those today to kind of give ourselves some distance between us and them,” Dannecker said.
Alex Hailey scored again before the game came to an end, and Dannecker knew that might happen if Orchard Park’s defense wasn’t able to stop him.
“Hailey is a great player,” Dannecker said. “We knew we had to pay attention to him. We tried to match up D with him to make sure we could contain him. He still was able to break through, so I wasn’t thrilled with the way we played against him defensively, but as far as us getting going and playing offensively, third period was great and we finally got ourselves going, and hopefully that’ll carry on.”
Palczewski answered Hailey’s second goal with his third, and the captain was excited to have three on the score sheet.
“It was a lot of team effort actually,” Palczewski said. “I got a lot of passes from [Kevin] McParlane, [Zach] Biasillo, and TJ. They put the pass right on my stick, and I just scored.”
Palczewski said that puck movement and team speed were key for Orchard Park, as has been the case all season long for the Quakers.
“Once we got it in their zone, we just moved the puck a lot, we got them to move, we got them tired, and we just buried our goals in the third period,” Palczewski said. “I think we outworked them because of our speed. We were just quicker than them, and we just outworked them in the third period and throughout the whole game and we got ’em tired in the third period, and that’s when we buried our goals.”
All four of Saturday’s goal scorers are seniors, and winning the quarterfinal game to extend their season by at least one more was reason to smile.
“It’s awesome,” Palczewski said. “I’ve been on the team for four years, and last year we got the first one, and the two years before, we lost, and it’s just a great feeling getting past the first one because then you keep going.”
“It’s fantastic,” said Peters. “As long as the coach is happy, we’re doing well. It’s all about preparation, getting ready to go in and do it and hopefully get something out of it, so that’s why. It was good. It felt good.”
Tonight, Orchard Park is scheduled to face Niagara Wheatfield in the semifinals at 8:30 pm. The Quakers were unsure of their opponent immediately following Saturday’s game, but Dannecker expected Niagara Wheatfield, and he already knew what to expect from the team.
“You got a great player you gotta watch for them, so it’s a similar type scenario where it’s gonna be tough to contain one of the better players in the league,” he said.
“We know we got a tough opponent ahead, so we’re gonna get prepared for that,” Strachan said.
Peters’ game plan was set: prepare and play the same way they always do.
“We just gotta keep playing how we are, keep doing the same things we’re doing, all the rituals before the game — we have plenty of rituals,” Peters said. “There’s plenty of stuff we do beforehand that helps us to get ready for the game, so that’s what we gotta keep going.”