The message written on the white board in the St. Michael’s Buzzers locker room heading into their stretch of three games in three nights on Friday night was a simple one: “We NEED six points this weekend.” Still in a battle to put some distance between themselves and the ninth place Upper Canada Patriots before the weekend began, the Buzzers could ill-afford to lose either one of their pair of games against the Dixie Beehives knowing a match up against the Toronto Jr. Canadiens at Chesswood Arena awaited them in their final game before the Christmas break.
Chesswood Arena had become known as the “House of Horrors” in Buzzer circles after not having won a game there since dispatching of the Jr. Canadiens in game six of the second round of the 2008 playoffs.
Scratching out a pair of hard fought, albeit, ugly victories against the Beehives to start the weekend, the Buzzers had a chance to stretch their winning streak to a season high four games and go into the Christmas break on a high. Despite falling down 2-0 by the midway point of the second period, St. Michael’s put forth a valiant effort; eventually storming back to tie the game before Dan Ciampini played “Captain Clutch” once again, winning it in overtime on a breakaway giving him two overtime game winning goals this season.
“It was huge for us,” said Captain Dan Ciampini. “We were down in the dumps a little bit there after coming off a bit of a slump but we talked during the week about how big this weekend was and this was like our playoffs for us. This game felt like a playoff game, I played against these guys in the playoffs and the same intensity was there. We capitalized on our chances and we played sound defensively which is one thing that we’ve struggled with all year. I’m happy; all the coaches are happy and if we can pull out more games like this, I’m sure we’ll start to be victorious more often than not.”
Buzzers’ Head Coach Mike DePellegrin was impressed with his team’s ability to raise their level of play to that of their opponents and explained that an effort like this proves the talent is there to win consistently if the necessary hard work and effort is put in every game.
“We did what we needed to do to get by over the last three games against teams of inferior skill compared to the Jr. Canadiens,” said DePellegrin. “Tonight, we were up against the Jr. Canadiens in what was our “House of Horrors” and we certainly raised our level and played what we consider to be playoff hockey. We won all the battles and we busted our butts for three periods, we emptied the tank. We knew it was the last game before the break, we threw everything we could at it and we were successful.”
After a scoreless first period, Braden Kavaratzis put the Jr. Canadiens up 1-0 at the 4:24 mark of the second period when he chipped a pass over the shoulder of Buzzers’ netminder Jon Loparco from the side of the net. Less than five minutes later, Nicholas Popelar snuck into the slot from his position on the point to fire a loose puck through a maze of legs, putting Toronto up by a pair.
In the past against the Jr. Canadiens, it would have been at that point where the Buzzers would have started to crumble and the onslaught from the Jr. Canadiens would have begun. However, this time around, due in large part by a determined effort from a lot of the role players on the team, St. Michael’s hung around and kept working hard, eventually leading to scoring chances of their own which they were able to capitalize on.
At the 16:03 mark, Lucas Lessio found a loose puck in the slot and deposited it past Jr. Canadiens’ netminder Zach Zanussi to cut the deficit to one goal. Just a half minute later, Mike Capicotto, who was outstanding with the energy he brought and his execution of fundamentals including getting pucks out of his own zone and applying consistent pressure on the forecheck, took a hit to keep the play alive inside the Jr. Canadiens’ zone which led to a defensive breakdown and a two on one down low. Tyler Forbes slid a pass at the top of the crease over to Dan Cameron who buried his ninth goal of the season to tie the game.
“The role players did their part because they often lead through hard work,” said DePellegrin. “Their ice is often limited; they have to almost play a perfect hockey game defensively so they lead by example through that style of play. Mike Capicotto did a fantastic job; he was in there on the forecheck, he’s a big strong guy and when his legs are going, he opens up a lot of ice for guys and he certainly was going tonight.”
Neither team was able to break the deadlock in the third period despite good scoring chances at both ends. Dan Ciampini had a breakaway with time set to expire at the end of the third period but had to rush a shot in order to beat the clock and did not end up getting the quality of shot he had in mind.
Less than a minute into overtime though, the chance presented itself once again when Blake Barbieri hit Ciampini with a long lead pass, springing him for another breakaway. Walking in alone, the Buzzers’ captain lifted a backhand shot over the left pad of Zanussi – his thirty first goal of the season – giving the Buzzers a 3-2 come-from-behind victory.
“I owed it to the boys, I missed two breakaways during the game and then I missed another one with seven seconds left in the game,” said Ciampini. “I came to the bench and I was really rattled but (Assistant Coach) Tony (DiNunzio) looked at me and said, ‘you’ve got this one’ and I looked up at him and said, ‘I do coach.’ He threw me out there but it was a lucky play, Barbs (Blake Barbieri) got the puck and just threw it up and I kind of caught it and I knew going into that that I wasn’t going to let up and let that opportunity slide.”
From the perspective of the Buzzers’ mindset as a team, regardless of the fact that they won the game, the quality of the effort, DePellegrin explained, showed that they can compete with any team in the league.
“It was a fantastic confidence booster and if it had gone the other way, it would have hurt a lot but it would still show us that we could compete with teams like this,” said the head coach. “Win or lose, obviously you’re never disappointed with a win, but we knew coming away from this game after three periods that we can compete with these guys but that we cannot let down and we cannot take shifts off. With our skill set, we have to give it everything we’ve got but when we do, we can do damage like we did tonight.”
The win moved the Buzzers into sole position of seventh place after the North York Rangers lost to the Burlington Cougars on Sunday night and gave them an eleven point cushion over the ninth place Upper Canada Patriots – also losers on Sunday night to the Orangeville Crushers. The significance in the standings as well as the positive mindset the win created heading into the Christmas break was not lost on Dan Ciampini.
“Apparently somebody called it the “House of Horrors” before the game but Coach (DePellegrin) let us know before the game that this was a big game and this was like our playoffs,” said the captain. “This whole weekend was like our playoffs but we came out hard tonight and I’ve got to give credit to all the boys because everybody left everything on the ice. We go into the break with six big points and we’ve got a gap now on Upper Canada and we’re up two points up on North York because they lost tonight. It was huge for us, the coaches are ecstatic and I’m really happy to go into the Newmarket Showcase with a win like that.”
