If there’s one thing every coach and player in the Fed knows, it’s that any team can win on any given night. It would seem that the odds are in Grand Island’s favor this year — the Vikings have won their first four games of the season.
They improved to 4-0 with a win over St. Francis on Sunday, but it was another close game. Colin Bellinger had two goals and an assist and Thomas Cecere had two assists as the Vikings downed St. Francis, 3-1. Goaltender Joe Samplinski stopped 19 of 20 shots.
“Four-and-oh, but I think any of those teams could have easily beat us,” said Grand Island coach Bob Simpson. “In this league, you can win any night and lose any night, so we thought we were gonna be a little bit stronger than last year. Our core were sophomores last year. Now our core forwards are juniors, and our core defensemen are seniors. We had some strong goaltending coming up here, so we thought we were gonna compete in every game, and so far we got lucky in four wins.”
Bellinger scored his first goal 4:59 into the first period, but Cody Felser tied it up for the Red Raiders less than two minutes later. Bellinger didn’t score again until 2:18 into the second, when he gave the Vikings a 2-1 lead.
Cecere set him up for both goals.
“Took the puck from the kid, and I went around the one kid and saw Colin backdoor, put it between the defender’s legs, and then he put it past the goalie,” said Cecere.
“I wasn’t really expecting it,” said Bellinger. “This kid likes to shoot a lot, so it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to put that one in.”
The second goal was similar.
“Last year, we never used to go forward on faceoffs,” explained Cecere. “This year, just felt like doing it, so that goal, walked the center, got the puck, saw Colin backdoor, put it between the defender’s legs again, and he put it backdoor.”
“Backdoor beauties all day,” said Bellinger.
Cecere and Bellinger knew it would take those types of goals to defeat St. Francis.
“We knew they were a tough team, they had a good goaltender,” said Cecere. “And we knew they were pretty big and fast, so they’d get on us quick, but we dumped the puck in, got on ’em quick. We had to put good shots on the goalie to put ’em in. Backdoor passes and tip-ins would be the way we’d win the game.”
“We knew that last year they were pretty good,” added Bellinger. “So we knew it was gonna be a tough game, and we just had to move the goalie and get those close goals, and we came out in the end.”
Bellinger assisted the Vikings’ third goal, a power play goal scored by Cameron Collignon 10:59 into the second.
“A little give-and-go, and he put it five-hole,” said Bellinger. “Tendy left that open, so Cam took advantage and got the goal.”
The Vikings know there’s still room for improvement. They took seven penalties in Sunday’s game and were lucky enough to kill them all off. But no one was happy about it, from Simpson down to Cecere, who took two penalties himself.
“We gotta clean that up because about four of them were pretty selfish, and then one too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty was just unacceptable as well,” Simpson said.
“We’re feeling good, but we can’t take any teams lightly,” Cecere said. “We definitely could have played better today. There was a couple dumb penalties by myself and the rest of the team.”
It was another night of lessons learned for Grand Island and one that the Vikings will work to improve from and build on as they look forward.
“Never take anyone lightly,” said Simpson. “I think sometimes we look at the scoreboard around the league and see that some teams lose big to other teams, but every team’s gonna be good, and we have to realize that we have to bring our game every night, and we can’t ever take a night off.”
“I’m hoping to build off it,” said Bellinger. “We played a little low today. We could have definitely played better and beat ’em by a little more, but a win’s a win, and we just gotta work harder next game.”