Larries Post-Season Surge Ends in State Semis

UTICA - The St. Lawrence Central hockey team met its post-season match on Saturday.

After having fashioned three straight come-from-behind playoff victories to earn their first trip to the New York State Division II Championships in two decades, the Larries were kept from generating another in falling 4-0 to Section 2 champion Queensbury in the semi-finals at the Utica Aud.

"They controlled the early part of the game but I thought we settled down and started to play our game the second half of the first period," said coach Mickey Locke after the Larries saw their banner season fall one win short of the state final.

"We knew that Queensbury had a lot of talent at forward. Once they got the lead, they did a great job of bottling us up in the neutral zone and they limited our chances more and more as the game wore on," he added.

With its 10th win in 11 games, Queensbury earned its first berth to the state championship game where it suffered a 5-2 loss to defending champion and local Section 3 favorite New Hartford 5-2 in the final game of the weekend at the Utica Aud. The Spartans (17-8-1), entered this year's state tournament having won four straight sectional titles. New Hartford advanced by blanking Section 7 champion Plattsburgh 6-0 in the other semi-final played earlier at the Utica Aud on Saturday.

Against SLC, the Spartans generated the first six shots of the game before the Larries starting to find their stride midway through the opening frame and closed the gap to 10-7 heading into the first intermission. Neither team found the mark in the first period which ended with the Larries drawing their second penalty of the game.

Opening the middle frame on the power play, Queensbury quickly turned the game in its favor when Connor Potvin redirected home a centering pass just 51 seconds into the middle frame. The Spartans doubled their lead just over a minute later when Brandon Edwards intercepted an SLC crossing pass in the neutral zone and quickly slid the puck ahead to teammate Morgan Misfud, who went in to score a breakaway goal at the 1:54 mark.

"Special teams' play is so important this time of year. That was the first power play goal we've given up in the playoffs and it turned out to be a big one for them," noted Locke. "We started the third period with a power play and it fizzled out for us."

After opening the third period by silencing what had been a potent post-season man-advantage for the Larries, the Spartans kept up the offensive pressure and pushed their lead to 3-0 when Brian Frederick knocked home a rebound with 7:31 left in regulation. Mifsud sealed the win by sending a shot three-quarters the length of the ice into an empty net with 57 seconds remaining.

Junior Dylan Hafner stopped the 20 shots he faced in posting the shutout while Jordan Gary handled 26 shots working the crease for the Larries, who finished at 16-8.

"We were guilty of not getting enough pucks toward the net. When we had opportunities, it seemed like we were trying to get too cute," noted Locke. "Our kids left it all out there on the ice, though. They worked hard right to the end."

"We got tremendous leadership from our seniors this year, especially our captains, Charlie Dullea and Jack Keenan. We're going to miss them a lot. You just don't replace those two kids," he added. "We have a good core coming back and hopefully the experience of getting to this game is something that we can draw upon next year."

Defenseman Jobie McCarthy also played in his final game for SLC along with forwards Doug Colbert and Matt James.

DIVISION I RECAP

Section 3 champion West Genesee, which scored two goals in the final minute of regulation then went on to beat Section 1 champion Suffern 4-3 in overtime, capped an outstanding 24-1 season by blanking Section 2 champion Saratoga 3-0 in the Division I final. Saratoga advanced to the championship game via a 4-3 win over Pittsford (Section 5).