Time apart did nothing to break up the chemistry between Hamburg forwards Jason Lucarelli and Josh Dake. The linemates’ nearly unstoppable chemistry continued in Sunday’s 6-2 quarterfinal win over North Tonawanda, in which Lucarelli assisted two Dake shorthanded goals just 11 seconds apart.
“We played together when we were younger, and we separated for a while, and it’s nice to come back,” Lucarelli said. “We came back for this year together, and it’s like we never went apart, never missed a beat.”
“Today, he just knew where I was,” said Dake. “I wasn’t even calling for it. He just knew where I would be and he gave it to me, gave me an open net, and just chipped one out for me, and I just won the battle and came in and scored. He seems to know where I am all the time; I seem to know where he is.”
“Using our speed to create space and then just finding each other, knowing where each other’s gonna be,” was the key on Sunday according to Lucarelli.
“Those guys are amazing,” Hamburg coach John McFall said. “They’ve played together before this year, and they know what each guy is doing. They’re both super smart hockey players. They’re both in excellent physical shape. They’re so strong out there. You just don’t see them getting knocked around at all, and a couple of those shorthanded goals, it looked like they were on the power play. They worked with each other.”
In the first period, Owen Gonter scored to give the Bulldogs an early lead just 3:20 into the game. Jason Chiodo and Lucarelli picked up the assists. And right at the buzzer to end the first, Evan McDermott set up Joey Dubill for a goal that gave Hamburg a 2-0 and boosted the team’s confidence going into the second period. McDermott was officially credited with the goal, but he was honest after the game.
“I’m a phony; it wasn’t actually my goal,” McDermott said. “I did all the work and I deserve credit for it, but I set up my linemate Joey Dubill for that one, so shootout to Joey Dubill. Last game, he got a buzzer beater from me too, so it was kinda like last game. Feels really good going into the break with momentum like that, so it was good.”
Just 40 seconds into the period, Dake was called for hooking, and the Bulldogs could have let the penalty break up their momentum. But that wasn’t how Lucarelli responded; he scored a shorthanded unassisted goal to add to Hamburg’s lead.
When Hamburg took another penalty 2:35 into the second, Dake responded by scoring twice 11 second apart, both goals assisted by Lucarelli.
“It was nice, but can’t really be taking penalties,” Dake said. “Coach was talking about it because we’re not gonna get away with that against Will East. It’s just not gonna work out like that; they’re too good.”
North Tonawanda got one goal back less than a minute later, when Anthony Schiavone was awarded a penalty shot and put one in through Hamburg goaltender Griffin Coppola’s five hole.
“He had his idea of what to do with the poke check, but he just left that five hole open, and he was kicking himself in between periods: ‘Ugh, I should have had that covered up,'” McFall said.
Jason Delmont added one more Hamburg goal in the third, and North Tonawanda added one late in the third courtesy of captain Dan Smolka.
Coppola hasn’t been perfect this season, but he’s a goalie that knows he can rely on. If nothing else, Coppola plays his heart out every game.
“He’s our rock,” McFall said. “This is his time of year. I told him before the game, playoffs are where you make your bones. He did that last year. His reputation was built on his performance last year. We’ve struggled keeping the puck out of the net a little bit. We’ve given up a lot of goals, and he takes every goal personally.”
Coppola is always quick to speak well of others as well, and he praised his teammates for their performance Sunday.
“They played out of their minds,” he said. “We couldn’t have asked for a better outing from them. I thought we were gonna come out here and take it lightly because we just beat Amherst by a lot, but we came out ready to play, and I’m very proud of them.”
His teammates knew they could do better, though.
“We could have come out flying more,” McDermott said. “I think we lost a lot of momentum coming out in the third period, but could have done better.”
“We played alright,” Lucarelli said. “[North Tonawanda] isn’t the strongest competition, so we know to beat Will East, we have to bring it a lot harder, and I think we have to play much better to win on Thursday.”