OTWin Over Canton Lifts Raiders To NAC Title
MASSENA - A dramatic finish helped the Massena Central boys hockey team take all the drama out of the race for the 2009-10 NAC Division I regular season championship on Monday.
"Before the season, we set goals as a team and one of them was winning our league. As coaches, we felt we had a good system in place but it was still going to be up to the kids. They've worked hard and achieved that goal," said coach Mike Trimboli after the Raiders rallied to earn a 2-1 overtime decision against Division I rival Canton at the Massena Arena.
"I made it clear before the game that we could clinch with a win tonight and the kids came up with a great team effort. Our kids did all the little things right. They played a good, solid all-around game," he added. "This part of the season is over though. We start all over with the playoffs."
With the win over Canton on Monday, the Raiders finished their NAC schedule with an 8-2-2 record (18 points). The best their Division I rivals can do is tie for second with 17 points as Potsdam stands at 7-3-1 (15 points) heading into a regular season finale on Wednesday at Salmon River while Canton slipped to 6-3-1 (13 points) with two NAC games remaining at home against Norwood-Norfolk on Wednesday and OFA on Saturday.
The Raiders will officially close out the regular season with their Invitational Tournament this weekend starting on Friday against Pelham starting at 8 p.m. Salmon River faces Mamaroneck in the other first round game at 5:30 p.m. The tournament wraps up on Saturday with Salmon River facing Pelham at noon and the host Raiders taking on Mamaroneck at 2:30 p.m. By claiming the NAC regular season banner on Monday, the Raiders earned an automatic bid to the Section 10 Division I title game slated for Sunday, March 7, at Clarkson's Cheel Arena.
Despite outshooting the Bears by a wide margin over the first two periods, the Raiders went into the third locked in a scoreless draw and found themselves trailing 1-0 when Eric Mende broke through for an unassisted goal at the 7:35 mark. Massena made a quick recovery, however, generating the equalizer less than two minutes later when senior captain David Henrie finished off a play set up by classmate Zach Prashaw with 5:31 left in regulation.
The Raiders fashioned the game winner at the 3:49 mark of the ensuing five-minute overtime with a perfectly executed face-off sequence that started with Prashaw drawing the puck from the left circle back to Henrie at the left point. Henrie then quickly slid the puck over to J.P. Mailhot at the right point and his junior blueline partner one-timed a shot just off the inside of the left post and into the top left corner
"It was a textbook goal," noted Trimboli.
Junior Bill Lint made 17 saves backstopping the win while Dakota Sharp stood tall in goal for the Bears turning aside 36 of the shots he faced.
