Sandstoners, Larries Notch Key Late-Season Wins

POTSDAM - Potsdam and St. Lawrence Central picked up key Northern Athletic Conference victories in boys hockey action on Wednesday night.

The Sandstoners (7-3-1 NAC, 11-7-1) stayed in the hunt for Division I regular season honors, now a point behind first place Massena, with a 4-0 home victory over Alex Bay.

Meanwhile, the Larries (8-3 NAC, 12-6) maintained their lead in Division II East with a 2-1 win at Salmon River.

Also Wednesday, it was Norwood-Norfolk (7-3 NAC, 9-8) staying in second place in Division II East with a 9-4 win at Malone while OFA (6-1-2 NAC, 9-5-2) maintained its lead in Division II West with a 6-0 home victory over Tupper Lake.

The Division I game scheduled between Canton and Massena was postponed.

Potsdam 4, Alex Bay 0: At Pine St. Arena, freshman defenseman Dakota Ford scored unassisted in the first period and then Ryan Merriman, Greg Burkum, and Seth Adams all tallied single goals the rest of the way in support of Evan Drummatter who made 24 saves in goal for the shutout.

Seth Adams, Taylor Hazen, Tyler Adams, Mike Ellis, Matt Merriman and Burkum all picked up assists on the night.

Aziel Snyder stopped 28 shots in goal for Alex Bay (3-6 NAC, 7-9).

SLC 2, Salmon River 1: At Fort Covington, Jack Keenan scored from Zach Baldwin and Brady Helmer in the first period on the power play and then Helmer connected from Brett Mahoney and Zach Baldwin early in the second period to lift the Larries past the Shamrocks.

Kevin Davie scored from Jeremy Cole for Salmon River in the third period on a breakaway.

Jordan Gary stopped 26 shots in goal for the Larries while Matt Healy made 23 saves in goal for the Shamrocks.

N-N 9 FA 4: At Malone, the Icemen scored early and often in vanquishing the Huskies.

For N-N, Alex Ploof scored the hat trick with an assist, Chuck Wagstaff also turned in the hat trick, Thomas Plumb tallied a goal and three assists, Tyler Murray contributed a goal and two helpers, Andrew Chapin handed out three assists while Josh Tiernan added a goal and an assist.

For Malone, Jared Marshall scored twice with an assist while Devin Fleury handed out two assists.

Tommy Mayette made eight saves in goal for N-N while Danny Rondeau made 29 saves for Malone.

OFA 6, Tupper Lake 0: At Ogdensburg, six different players scored goals and three goalies shared in a 12-save shutout for OFA.

Anthony Pirie, Erik Whitcombe, Brandon Mullin, Drew Hilborne, Eric Sweeney and Dustin Harper all scored once with Trey Lawrence contributing two assists.

Chris Harper, Andrew LeBeau and Quinn Rufa all played a period in goal for OFA.

Marcus Richer made 40 saves for the Lumberjacks.