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High-flying Larries sink Storm

Red Storm sophomore goalie Jaden Gladd pokes the puck away from Larries forward Peyton Felix during the third period of Monday’s game. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

SARANAC LAKE — Some people may have had a chance to relax over the three-day holiday weekend, but there was no rest for the Saranac Lake boys hockey team.

After traveling to play in two tough games Friday and Saturday at the Norwood-Norfolk tournament, Saranac Lake was back on the ice for the third time in four days on Monday to host one of the hottest teams in the state. The Red Storm put up a battle, but were outmatched in the end as they were dealt a 6-3 non-league loss by St. Lawrence Central.

The game stayed tight through the opening two periods, but the Larries took control late in the second when they buried two power-play goals in a span of 32 seconds to grab a 4-2 lead. St. Lawrence added another goal early in the third to up their edge to 5-2, and the teams traded single tallies down the stretch to round out the scoring.

Trent Dow netted a hat trick and Peyton Felix, Drew Rose and Carter Rose chipped in a goal each for the Larries, who have won 10 straight games and are now 10-1-1. Rhett Darrah scored two goals and Kyler Darrah found the back of the net for the Red Storm, who dropped to 5-5-2 overall. With the loss, Saranac Lake is currently on a four-game winless streak that includes two ties and a pair of setbacks.

“I’ve always been a firm believer in playing the better teams. That’s going to get us ready for playoffs,” Saranac Lake head coach Will Ellsworth said. “I think St. Lawrence is going to be a top-five team (in the state) in a week or two looking at their record. They have some talent, and their transition game is probably one of the best, if not the best, in the state.

Saranac Lake’s Ben Casagrain and Jah Robertson of St. Lawrence crash into the boards during Monday’s game at the Saranac Lake Civic Center. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

“Our game plan was to keep our third guy really high, and in the first eight minutes we picked off a couple of their passes,” Ellsworth continued. “We ran a little trap in the neutral zone, but their transition game is so good when our third guy didn’t get back on the back check, they made it count. They capitalized on three of their six goals. They just out manned us. They outnumbered us in front of the net, they buzzed the net, they got pucks to the net, and they scored.”

As the youngest player on the ice, Rhett Darrah had a shining performance for Saranac Lake. He scored the game’s first goal to put the hosts on top 1-0 when he tipped a puck past Larries netminder Bransen Kinnear 5:22 into the game. The Larries answered with the next two tallies, with Dow tying the score on a goal at the 12:31 mark of the first, and Peyton putting his team on top 2-1 with just eight seconds left in the period.

The Red Storm tied the game at 2-2 with 5:04 gone in the second when Kyler Darrah found himself wide open on the left side of the net and finished off a great pass that Brett Dawson sent through the crease from the right wing.

But St. Lawrence then made the Red Storm pay for going to the penalty box, starting when Dow buried his second of the game at the 11:14 mark of the second when the Larries were skating with a 5-on-3 advantage. After taking a 3-2 edge, the Larries quickly added another goal when they were up one skater, when Drew Rose ripped a slapshot from the left faceoff circle past Red Storm goalie Jaden Gladd.

Carter Rose scored with 2:57 gone in the third for a 5-2 Larries, lead, Rhett Darrah answered with his second of the game at the 8:46 mark to cut the Red Storm’s deficit to 5-3. Dow buried the last puck of the afternoon, completing his hat trick with 5:02 left on the clock.

Both teams finished with 19 shots on goal.

“We have a lot of hockey on our schedule the last week or so,” St. Lawrence head coach Mickey Locke said. “We’re in the midst of a hectic part of our schedule, we didn’t have our best game today, but I guess we did enough to find a little bit of success. We moved the puck well at times, we scored some really beautiful goals, but we didn’t have the consistency that we’ve had over the past couple of weeks.”

“We have two elite goaltenders and our defensive corp is outstanding, and as far as the offensive side of our puck, we have great balance in scoring,” Locke continued. “I think our leading scorer has six goals, but we have seven or eight guys with three or more. There’s not one guy or one line that an opponent can look at and say ‘If you can shut that down, that’s how you beat St. Lawrence Central.’ We skate three lines from the beginning of the game to the end of the game, and I think that’s really contributed to our success.”

Andrew Lantry finished with three assists for St. Lawrence, Felix added two assists, and Drew Rose and Luke Collins had one assist each in the win. Sophomore Austen Reyell recorded two assists for Saranac Lake, and Dawson and Casey Sturgeon finished with one assist each in the loss.

St. Lawrence returns to Section VII action and next plays Potsdam Wednesday. Saranac Lake will have a 10-day layoff to hopefully get back on track. The Red Storm’s next starts will be non-league affairs at home starting with a game on Friday, Jan. 27 against Hilton Central beginning at 7 p.m.

“”At times, I thought we played really well tonight, but we’re a tired hockey team right now,” Ellsworth said. “We have a good 10 days off before our next game, and I told our boys in the locker room that we really need a break right now. We really need a couple of good practices, and we basically have to start making our push toward playoffs.”

St. Lawrence 6, Saranac Lake 3

Larries 2 2 2 — 6

Red Storm 1 1 1 — 3

Scoring

First Period

1. SL, R. Darrah (Reyell), 5:22; 2. SLC; Dow (Lantry, Felix), 12:31; 3, SLC, Felix (D. Rose), 14:42.

Second Period

4. SL, K. Darrah (Dawson), 5:04; 5. SLC, Dow (Lantry, C. Rose), 11:14, pp; 6. SLC, D. Rose, 11:46, pp.

Third Period

7. SLC, C. Rose (Lantry, Collins), 2:57; 8. SL, R. Darrah (Reyell, C. Sturgeon), 8:46; 9. SLC, Dow (Felix), 9:58.

Shots on goal: St. Lawrence 19, Saranac Lake 19.

Saves: SLC, Kinnear 16; SL, Gladd 13.

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