Blue Bombers surge early for hockey victory
December 1, 2012
,Adirondack Daily Enterprise
SARANAC LAKE - Lake Placid came out strong early Friday night in a 5-3 win over Niskayuna/Schenectady in the first round of the second annual Casey McHugh Tournament at the Saranac Lake Civic Center.
The Blue Bombers scored two goals in the first period and one early in the second to grab a 3-0 lead.
"I think we came out, and I think we were skating pretty well in the first period," Lake Placid coach Keith Clark said. "We outplayed them. We doubled them up in shots, and our first period was clearly our best period."
The Bombers got on the board in the first with the help of senior forward Keegan Barney, who had the first two goals of the game. Both goals were on power plays.
"One of my teammates took a shot at the net, and I just rushed to it to get the rebound and poked it in," Barney said about his first goal.
In the second period, the Bombers kept up the pressure by scoring with a little more than five minutes left to take a 3-0 lead
The Blue Bombers tallied the third goal after Connor Preston skated behind the net and found a wide open Shane McNierney, who was open in front of goal for a shot.
"Connor Preston made a nice turn and I just shot it as quick as I could," McNierney said. "It was a nice shot."
Lake Placid's Ryan Damp tacked on another goal at the end of the second period when he beat the goalie on a short-handed breakaway. That gave the Blue Bombers a commanding 4-0 lead.
"We came out a little flat," Niskayuna coach Todd Templeton said. "They outshot us in the first period. I think it was 11-4 or something like that. But maybe we had bus legs. It's only our second game of the year, so maybe we were still a little nervous. We have a lot of young guys."
In the third period, Lake Placid seemed to lose a bit of its momentum. Niskayuna scored the first two goals of the period to make it 4-2, before McNierney answered with his second goal of the game to make it 5-2.
Niskayuna added another goal by Evan Mahoney late in the period to make it 5-3.
"We gave ourselves a chance in the third period by coming back, but we've got to play all three periods in order to be successful," Templeton said.
Lucas Maloney and Matt Peretti scored Niskayuna's other goals.
Blue Bomber goalie Jeffrey Smith had 23 saves, while Niskayuna's goalie Spencer Moran had 20.
This is a points-based tournament, with teams earning one point for winning a period and two for a victory. Lake Placid finished with four points. Niskayuna finished with one.
