SLC-4 SAMON-3 SECTION X PLAYOFF CHAMPIONSHIP GAME AT CLARKSON 2/29/2016

After seeing his team fall behind 3-0 to Salmon River on a shorthanded goal with 11:29 left in the third period, even St. Lawrence Central coach Mickey Locke had his doubts about the Larries’ chances of defending their Section 10 Division II hockey title. “Honestly, it didn’t look good,” said Locke. But instead of sealing a hard-fought win for the Shamrocks, the goal wound up setting the stage for a stunning 4-3 comeback that lifted the Larries to their third sectional championship in four years. A comeback that started just 25 seconds later on the same power play when senior Nick Kowalchuk finished off a play set up by Drew Rose and Jake Sutton and was capped less than eight minutes later when junior Luke Collins skated in from the left wing after controlling the puck from a face-off win outside the offensive zone by Trent Dow and sent a sinking shot on goal from the top of the face-off circle into the back of the net with 3:53 left remaining. “I really felt that after we came right back with that power play goal that we had a chance,” said Locke. “This team has been resilient all year. We got that first goal then we came right back with two more. It’s amazing how the momentum wound up changing the way it did. We’ve won a lot of game in a lot of different ways this year but this was the first time we came back like this.” The Larries improved to 15-3-4 with the win and will now get set to travel to Amherst this Saturday to take on a Section 6 champion that was also slated to be determined on Monday while the Shamrocks, who were making their first trip to Clarkson’s Cheel Arena since winning the Division II crown in 2012, close out the season with a 10-13 record. “We came out and got the 2-0 lead and we had a solid second period and things looked pretty good when we got the shortie to go up by three. But give St. Lawrence credit. No doubt they are a good team for them to be able to come back and win the way they did,” said Salmon River coach Tim Cook. “We just weren’t able to finish them off,” he added. Salmon River put the Larries back on the heels of their skates early when Tanner Tarbell won a face-off to the right of the SLC net over to Kenan Herne, who quickly wristed a low shot through to the back of the net just 28 seconds after the opening face-off. The Shamrocks then took a 2-0 lead when Jay Chubb controlled a centering pass from the left wing and swept back to the left across the slot before slipping the puck past freshman netminder Rico DiMatteo at the 4:48 mark. After a scoreless second period, the Shamrocks were called for their fifth penalty early in the third but an attempted shot from the point was blocked and led to a two-one break the other way. DiMatteo made the initial save on a shot by Tehakwirakarenrons McDonald but Tarbell was there to stuff home the puck after the SLC keeper looked to make a play with the rebound to make it 3-0 just 3:31 into the final frame. The Larries generated their first goal on the same penalty and pulled to within one just 25 seconds after that when Will Arquiett one-timed a crossing pass from Ian Bressett at the 4:21 mark. SLC then pulled even at 7:36 when Kowalchuk led a three-on-one break by rushing the puck up the left wing before wristing a shot into the back of the net from the top of the face-off circle. “We have a lot of mentally strong players in our lockerroom and we showed that we were mentally tough enough to keep our heads and not get down on each other,” noted senior captain Hadyn Demers-St. Hilaire, one of a handful of four-year seniors who extended their season with a third sectional title. “It feels really good to win but doing it with a comeback makes it even better.” DiMatteo finished with 25 saves in his sectional championship debut while junior Jarrad Jackson turned aside 26 shots working the crease for the Shamrocks. “We played a very tough non-league schedule and I’m proud of the way the kids kept coming after St. Lawrence tonight even after they went ahead,” said Cook. “We talked after the game about how the bigger the game, the worse it hurts to loose.” “We are very proud of our kids. They bought into what the coaches were trying to get them to do and they accepted their roles. We lose nine seniors but we have a very strong core of younger players and we’ll learn from this,” he concluded. massena paper