Saranac Lake-Lake Placid's Btaden Munn (31) with the pad save as Saranac's Zach O'Connell (88) breaks in looking for the opening goal. It would be the semi-finals of the Section VII Boy's Hockey Playoffs and we would have the #3 Saranac Lake-Lake Placid Lakers traveling to Plattsburgh to take on the #2 Saranac Chiefs for the right to head to the Section VII Championship on February 27th against the #1 Beekmantown Eagles. It would be a great game between two evenly matched teams that would split their two regular-season meetings with both teams winning on their home ice. Neither team was willing to end their season on this night and they would end up going through the whole regulation game time without either team scoring. So then in accordance with the Section VII playoffs rules they would play a regular length period in overtime with the first team scoring being declared the winner. In that period the Chiefs would get the game-winner 5:27 into the overtime when Nolan Miner would score on the scramble in front of the net off the rebound to give the Chiefs the 1-0 win. In the winning effort, the Saranac Chiefs would advance to the Section VII Championship as Joey Mitchell would make 31 saves as the Chiefs go to 12-7-2 on the season. Gallery

Saranac's Joey Mitchell (30) with the stick save as Saranac Lake-Lake Placid Carson St. Louis (11) would break and Mitchell would keep his 31-save shutout in tack. Gallery

Northeastern Clinton’s Ryan Racine and Pelham’s Eric Elbery jostle for position as they arrive at the loose puck along the half boards. The Northeastern Clinton Central School boys hockey team’s season came to an end Saturday with an 8-3 loss to the top-ranked team in NYSPHSAA Division II hockey in the regional round of the state championship tournament.
The Cougars played hard to the end, but they were unable to overcome the Pelicans of Pelham Memorial High School.
Pelham put pressure on the Cougars early, keeping the puck in the offensive zone for much of the third period. The Pelicans led shots by a 31-4 margin at the first intermission, with a pair of goals by sophomore Griffin Evans - both assisted by junior Louie Marcelino - the difference on the scoreboard.
The Cougars came out of the locker room looking to get back even and accomplished half of that job when senior Reid Lavalley notched the team’s first tally of the game.
Any momentum the Cougars wanted to take from that was stifled quickly, as senior captain Luke Green restored the Pelicans’ two-goal lead just 27 seconds later.
Pelham Memorial piled on a further two goals, by Marcelino and junior defenseman Eric Elbery, to build up a comfortable 5-1 lead. A couple of breaks for the Northeastern Clinton team threatened to put them right back in the game before the end of the period, though.
The first came as senior defenseman Blake Chevalier launched the puck up the ice 175 feet from behind his own goal line. Instead of going behind for icing, the bouncing puck hit the pads of goaltender Jake Mallinson and deflected into the net.
The second break came just 46 seconds later, as freshman Winfred Simpson scored off assists from Lavalley and freshman Ryan Racine to bring the Cougars within two goals.
That was the closest the Section VII champions would get, however, as the Pelicans added another goal by Marcelino before the end of the period, with Evans and senior Ben Rosenberg getting the assists.
The third period was once again one controlled by Pelham Memorial, with an 18-4 advantage in shots in the final frame. Freshman Mark Rosa got on the score sheet at 11:28 of the third period, assisted by freshman Reid Finster and Rosenberg, before Marcelino completed his hat trick 23 seconds later.
Rosenberg recorded assists on Pelham’s last five goals of the game.
Mallinson made 14 saves for Pelham, while senior Alain Juneau’s 66 saves in net for Northeastern fell short, as the Pelicans outshot the Cougars 74-17 in the contest.
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Pelham’s Angus Deeney skates in on goal as Northeastern Clinton goaltender Alain Juneau prepares to make one of the 66 saves he would make in the game. Gallery