SLP boys hockey take down Tupper Lake in tourney
SARANAC LAKE — It didn’t take long for the Saranac Lake Placid boys hockey team to settle right in during the consolation match in the annual Casey McHugh Memorial Tournament on Saturday, Dec. 14. But as soon as they did, just about everything seemed to work.
The SLP boys topped non-league rival Tupper Lake 8-1 at the Saranac Lake Civic Center to place third in the tournament.
It was a vastly different performance from SLP, which suffered a 6-2 loss to the Plattsburgh Hornets in the opening round of the tournament on Friday, Dec. 13. The team had posted a strong opening period, but couldn’t stop the Hornets in the final two.
“We just saw some other things that came about in the second (period) and threw us off our game, and that was the end result yesterday,” SLP head coach Josh Spanburgh said. “I’m really happy with how they played for three full periods (on Saturday). That’s what we’ve been pushing a lot is come to work, practice or game, and put in a full effort and today we got that. Everyone got on the ice, which was really nice to see. So everyone got some work in, and sometime in so I’m really proud of that.”
Will Landriault and Ayden McCormick each scored two goals and had one assist for SLP, while Carver Bell also added a pair of goals en route to the team’s second victory of the season.
SLP’s Brayden Harvey and Ryan Bruce each scored one goal and teammate Carson St. Louis had two assists. Six other players — Ryan Bartholomew, Evan Harvey, Ethan Knight, Owen Lawrence, MacKaid Nicholas and Gerald Woodruff — recorded one assist.
Karter Kenniston scored the lone goal for Tupper Lake, which dropped both of its tournament games. The Lumberjacks, which won the Casey McHugh tournament last season, suffered an 8-2 loss to the Franklin Academy (Malone) Huskies on Friday. The Huskies ultimately won the tournament with a 5-2 victory over Plattsburgh on Saturday.
“I think we could play better (on Saturday) for sure, but we’re pretty set back right now,” Tupper Lake head coach Broyce Guerette said.
The Lumberjacks’ home arena — the Tupper Lake Memorial Civic Center — has been without ice since October because of a broken chilling vessel. It’s caused the team to have limited ice time, including just one practice last week.
“Because of our ice situation, we’re behind,” Guerette said. “Typically we know where everyone is going to be. We have all this stuff ironed out, and we’re just not able to get that time to do it. So, we’re trying to do it on the fly. It’s tough.”
Landriault got SLP going with a goal at 10:29 in the opening period, and a couple of minutes later set up McCormick to lift his team to a 2-0 advantage. Knight also assisted on the second goal.
Kenniston cut the deficit to 2-1 early in the second period, however, Bruce responded for SLP with his first career varsity goal less than two minutes later.
“I’m very proud of Ryan Bruce, he’s been working hard and getting a lot of instruction and it came to fruition,” Spanburgh said.
SLP took firm command of the game when Landriault netted his second goal before the middle period’s end. Braydon Harvey gave SLP a 5-1 edge when he scored early in the third, and McCormick made it 6-1 when he buried a shot a couple minutes later. Bell rounded out the scoring with back-to-back goals.
Goaltender Cassidy Goodman recorded 20 saves in the victory for SLP, while Tupper Lake’s Brayden Shannon had 21 stops.
While Spanburgh said it was a complete team effort, he was especially proud of how his defense has stepped up this season.
“We used to be a little more panicky last year and I feel like this year our defense is a little more composed and comfortable,” he said. “They’re making some really good plays, which is helping us quite a bit.”
Tupper Lake had plenty of scoring chances and was only outshot 29-21.
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SLP 5, NCCS 1
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Ayden McCormick and Braydon Harvey scored two goals each as the Saranac Lake Placid boys hockey team beat the Northeastern Clinton Cougars 5-1 on Tuesday, Dec. 17 at the Saranac Lake Civic Center.
Freshman defenseman Evan Harvey also scored for SLP, while goalie, Cassidy Goodman, recorded 25 saves. Teammates Ryan Bartholomew and Carson St. Louis had one assist each in the win, which improved the team’s overall record to 3-2.
Baylon Cronkrite scored the Cougars’ lone goal on an assist from Cobe Lafountain, while netminder Greyson Lafountain had 28 saves.
SLP jumped out to a 1-0 in the opening period when McCormick stole the puck in the offensive zone, and rifled a shot over Northeastern Clinton’s goaltender’s left shoulder.
Cronkrite tied the score 1-1 with a power-play goal early in the second period. However, SLP reclaimed the lead following McCormick’s ninth goal of the season — which leads all of Section VII — on a pass from Bartholomew a couple of minutes later.
Evan Harvey extended SLP’s lead at 5:46 in the second period on a pass from St. Louis. The goal was Evan Harvey’s first of his young career.
In the final period, Braydon Harvey netted an even-strength goal and a short-handed goal to secure the victory for SLP. The junior forward now has five goals on the season, which is tied for second in the section — with Beekmantown’s Edward Sweenor — trailing only McCormick.
Following Tuesday’s game, the SLP boys will hit a two-week break before returning to the action against the Tupper Lake Lumberjacks on the road at 7 p.m. on Jan. 2.