Trevor Conschafter may have been the hardest worker on the St. Joe’s Fed team this season. After a win in early February, coach Rich Crozier told the rest of his team as much and praised Conschafter for his hard work as well as his attitude.
A quiet player, Conschafter sneaked right up to the top of the St. Joe’s statistics chart with seven goals and seven assists in 16 regular season league games, and despite not recording a point in the Marauders’ state championship win in Brooklyn, New York, Crozier handed the junior forward the game MVP award.
As he accepted the game puck from Crozier, Conschafter said, “Why me? I honestly don’t know why.”
“I’m telling you, it’s because you work so incredibly hard, so people notice that hard work,” Crozier told him.
Conschafter’s reaction to his Bowman Cup selection was similar.
“It was pretty cool,” Conschafter said. “I was really excited. I didn’t think I was gonna make it, so it was really cool.”
But once again, it was Conschafter’s hard work, as well as his statistics, that earned him a place on Buffalo’s junior Bowman Cup team for Sunday’s game. And with three of his St. Joe’s teammates on the ice with him on Sunday, with Mike Greco and Jeremy Ienco there to complete an all-maroon line, Conschafter scored one goal and assisted another as Buffalo lost, 5-2, to Rochester’s junior team.
It was Ienco who scored the game-winning goal in overtime to win the state championship, and had the primary assist on both Conschafter’s goal and Buffalo’s other goal, scored by Mike Greco.
Greco’s stats for the season were just a couple behind Conschafter’s — seven goals and five assists in 16 league games. He was a player who could be counted on to come through with a big goal when it was needed, and his work ethic was no different than any of his teammates’.
Greco, along with Conschafter, Ienco, and St. Joe’s junior defenseman Jack Lalley, were informed of their selection via text from Crozier.
“We got a text from Coach Crozier saying to check our email and congratulations,” Greco explained. “It was pretty cool. Called my mom and dad and let ’em know, and they were excited.”
There was a total of 20 juniors representing Buffalo on Sunday, and Crozier coached the team, assisted by Clarence coach Rich Brooks and West Seneca West coach Kevin Rozo. The game plan going in was to have fun.
“Just have fun,” Crozier told the team of junior all-stars. “Cherish the moment. It goes quick. What a great opportunity to represent their school and their family and to just enjoy it. That was a great game. I thought it could have went either way. Little bit more wide open than you know I like. We tend to play a little bit more defense where I coach, but I thought it was a fantastic game, and I thought just a great a opportunity for these guys to get a chance to play on NHL ice in an NHL building and represent their schools for a first class organization like the Buffalo Sabres.”
“Coach did a pretty good job of letting us know that it’s just a hockey game,” Greco said. “We’re all supposed to be here, we’re here for a reason, and to go out there and play our game and try not to do too much and to play within yourself and don’t be nervous — kinda get the jitters out in the first shift and just play hockey.”
“Yeah, he said to enjoy it,” added Conschafter. “I think we all enjoyed it, so it was a really fun time.”
And the players weren’t the only ones having fun.
“These are fun to do,” Crozier said. “This is, I think, my eighth season, so it’s really a lot of fun for the kids. One of the things that I think is maybe lost on the Western New York hockey community is how much the actual Buffalo Sabres put into developing the youth of our community and how fantastic. These jerseys, they’re not free, but just, for what it’s worth, I would say that the one thing we know about the Buffalo Sabres, especially in the last few years, is when they do something, they do it right, and how fantastic is it that they put on this year in and year out for these young men.”
Those young men made Crozier’s job even more enjoyable on Sunday.
“From a coaching perspective, I thought they were fantastic,” Crozier said. “Great group to coach today.”
Of course, he was most excited to talk about the contributions of his players.
“I thought my four were fantastic,” Crozier said. “I don’t know if anybody was keeping track — maybe I was and maybe I wasn’t — but two assists and both goals were from a maroon helmet. It makes me excited about next season. I’ll tell you that. To have three juniors on a forward line and they score our two goals.”
Greco’s goal came early in the second half and Conschafter’s came just over halfway through the half, but the two goals weren’t enough as Buffalo fell short of a win.
“Schafty was in hard on the forecheck as usual, won the battle as usual, he popped it out to Jeremy, Jeremy threw it in front and kind of found it right on my stick and tried to get the shot off,” Greco described his goal.
“I think Grecs passed it to Jeremy, and Jeremy had a good move and hit me high slot, and I just tried to get a shot off and it went five hole, so it worked out,” Conschafter said.
But with a state championship already under their belts this season, though, Greco and Conschafter were able to simply enjoy themselves on Sunday regardless of the outcome. They enjoyed playing together once more this season as well as playing alongside some of the best juniors in Western New York besides themselves.
“That was a lot of fun,” Greco said. “Schafty and Jeremy, they’re good players. They’re fun to play with. They’ll find me and get me the puck; I’ll get them the puck. And hopefully we can keep it up next year in high school.”
“Yeah, we played good together,” agreed Conschafter. “I hope we can keep it going for next year.”
“It was a lot of fun playing with kids that we don’t get the chance to play with,” Greco added. “There’s a lot of good players in that room.”
“It was a lot of fun and we still had a good time and I think we gave it a good effort, so it was a good time,” said Conschafter.
Sending four juniors to represent St. Joe’s wasn’t just an encouragement to the players themselves, but also for the St. Joe’s hockey program. The work ethic of Conschafter exemplified a Marauders tradition, and Greco and Conschafter hope that they can provide the same leadership season that this year’s seniors provided for them.
“We’re losing some pretty key guys, but hopefully we’ll have some guys coming up that can step up,” Greco said. “Hopefully as a senior, me and Trevor can lead the other guys like the seniors did last year and go for the state championship again.”
“Hopefully, we can step up and do what our seniors did this year because they were key to our team,” Conschafter said.
“I think everybody thinks next year’s a rebuilding year for St. Joe’s,” Crozier said. “Maybe not. Got plenty of players.”
The Buffalo junior goalies discuss their Bowman Cup experience.
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