Blue Bombers repeat as McHugh tourney champs
December 3, 2012
,Adirondack Daily Enterprise
SARANAC LAKE - Lake Placid took first place in the second annual Casey McHugh Memorial Hockey Tournament at the Saranac Lake Civic Center this weekend.
The Blue Bombers earned the title in the points-based tournament for the second year in a row after beating Niskayuna-Schenectady on Friday and Burnt Hills-Ballston Spa on Saturday.
Overall, Lake Placid garnered eight points while Saranac Lake tallied six, Burnt Hills finished with five and Niskayuna earned two. Teams were awarded two points for a win and one for winning a period.On Saturday, for the second consecutive game, the Blue Bombers jumped out to an early lead on the way to their 5-4 victory over Burnt Hills.
The Blue Bombers scored four goals in the first period to take a 4-2 advantage heading into the second. Eddie Kane netted two goals in the opening period, while RJ Reid and Nzoni Thompson each scored once.
Thompson's goal came just over 13 minutes into the game when he put the puck in the top shelf on a shot from the blue line to give Lake Placid a 3-2 lead.
Less than a minute later, Kane score his second goal for a 4-2 advantage.
"It feels good to win SL's tournament," Kane said. "They are the host and our rival, so it feels good to win their tournament two years in a row."
Neither team was able to score in the second period, but Lake Placid coach Keith Clark liked what he saw from his team during that period.
"I thought our second period was our best period," he said. "Even though we outplayed them 4-2 (in the first), they had their backup netminder (playing), and we got a couple of goals and we stopped playing. That's something we talked about as a team. We have to be more consistent."
Clark noted that his team outshot its opponent 9-3 in the second period and 20-8 in the third period.
"The ice was titled. We were in their end a lot," Clark said. "We were reading off each other a lot better, so I was happy with our second and relatively happy with our third period. So that's good to build on, even though the result wasn't there in those periods, the play was. We played better."
In the third period, Burnt Hills got back into the game behind goals from Trey Swingruber and Nick Van Liew, whose goal cut the lead to one with just over a minute left.
But a goal early in the third period from tournament most valuable player Keegan Barney gave the Blue Bombers enough of a cushion to pull off the win.
"They came out, (and) I think they got a couple of fluke goals on us (early)," Burnt Hills coach Jim Buffoline said. "Usually, our goalie will make those kind of saves. The goalie we had in in the first period, he's young. It's only his first high school game. I think he's was a little nervous."
Burnt Hills goalie Ben Koszelak finished with nine saves in the first period, while teammate Austin Clark had nine saves in the second and 19 in the third.
Blue Bomber goalie Tucker Angelopoulos earned the win with 16 saves.
"Saranac Lake is a great host and we love coming over to this tournament," Clark said. "We won it last year and to defend and win it again, we're happy obviously. To start out with two wins on the road. It's a tough (place) to play in, so we're real pleased."
