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Bombers’ hockey run ends in semis

Lake Placid’s Kevin Geesler goes airborne while Beekmantown goalie Cole Harvey smothers the puck during Thursday’s Section VII semifinal contest at the Olympic Center’s 1932 Rink. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

LAKE PLACID — An impressive run by the Lake Placid hockey team is over.

The Blue Bombers’ bid toward a third straight Section VII title, and along with it, a march toward a third possible trip in a row to the state final four, came to an end on home ice Thursday with a 3-2 semifinal loss to Beekmantown.

After defeating Beekmantown in both regular season meetings and winning the Champlain Valley Athletic Conference championship, top-seeded Lake Placid drew first blood in this game with just 24 seconds gone in the middle period on a goal by Bjorn Kroes. But the fourth-seeded Eagles, who rolled three lines against the short-benched Blue Bombers, responded with three straight tallies and then held on as Lake Placid netted a power-play goal with 15 seconds remaining in the game.

Josh McCauley turned out to be one of the heroes for the winners after he netted two goals, both in the third period, including what proved to be the game-winner with 3:19 remaining in regulation. Senior goaltender Cole Harvey also came up huge with a 21-save effort, including two stops on breakaways by Lake Placid’s top goal-getter, Sean Moore. Senior captain Christian Wawrzynski also had a monster game for the Eagles, picking up assists on all three of their goals.

The Eagles finished with a 32 to 23 edge in shots on goal and now move on to Tuesday’s Section VII final where they will face Plattsburgh, which edged Northeastern Clinton 4-3 in another semifinal thriller Thursday.

Lake Placid freshmen Tyler Hinckley (2) and Hunter Wilmot flank Beekmantown’s Josh McCauley during Thursday’s Section VII semifinal game at the Olympic Center in Lake Placid. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

With limited depth, the Blue Bombers skated just two lines all season, and head coach Butch Martin said the loss of the leader of their second forward line, sophomore Hayden Plank, to an injury midway through the second period made Thursday’s task even more difficult.

“We worked has hard as we could,” Martin said. “Losing Plank didn’t help at all. He got hit pretty hard in the middle of the second period. He was definitely causing some havoc out there. Beekmantown came at us — three full lines the whole game. They have some players. Wawrzynski is as good as anybody in the league and when he got the puck, he controlled the game, but hats off to my guys. They’ve had a great run.”

Both teams put eight shots on goal during a scoreless opening period, and Lake Placid got the early jump in the second when Kroes, one of seven seniors on the team, tipped home a rebound after Harvey made what was probably his only mistake of the game. The goal came just seconds after Beekmantown killed off a penalty that extended over from the first period, and started when Evan Damp fed a pass to Sean Moore in the slot. Moore fired a wrist shot on goal, Harvey made the save with his glove but lost the puck and Kroes was on the doorstep to tap in his 11th goal of the season.

The Eagles, however, answered less than a minute later when Nathan Hebert sent a wrist shot from the left point past a screened Lake Placid goalie Kamm Cassidy for a power-play goal that tied the game at 1-1.

Beekmantown began pouring on the pressure as the game progressed and wound up outshooting Lake Placid 24-15 over the course of the final two periods. McCauley, a junior, broke the deadlock with his first of the game, which came at the 5:11 mark of the third and lifted the Eagles to a 2-1 edge. He knocked in his second with 3:19 to go in the third, which ultimately gave Beekmantown the cushion it needed to advance.

Senior Sean Moore, who led the Blue Bombers in scoring this season, displays his disappointment after the Blue Bombers season and his high school hockey career ended with a 3-2 loss to Beekmantown. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

Facing a two-goal deficit, Lake Placid pulled Cassidy from the nets with a little more than a minute remaining, and benefited from a late penalty called against Beekmantown when freshman Hunter Wilmot knocked a rebound past Harvey in a flurry in front of the net with 15.5 seconds left on the clock to make it a 3-2 contest. Lake Placid had one more last gasp remaining in the game when an icing call against Beekmantown set up a faceoff in the Eagles end of the rink with just under three seconds remaining. The Blue Bombers won the faceoff, the puck slid toward the right side of the net and Wilmot nearly stuffed the puck into the corner but Harvey smothered the attempt as the buzzer sounded.

During his eight years behind the bench as Beekmantown’s head coach, Justin Frechette said his team has never had to compete in two playoff games to reach the final. On Tuesday, the Eagles began their march toward their first possible Section VII crown since they won back-to-back championships in 2013 and 2014.

“I’ve coached eight years and have never played a quarterfinal game,” Frechette said. “Heading into the season, we knew this league could be so close, and that’s how it’s gone this year. One through five — anyone could beat anyone on any given night. You just want to get hot at the right time of year and I think we did.

“I just want to congratulate Butch Martin and his staff, and Kamm Cassidy in net,” Frechette added. “That’s a classy group of kids and a classy group of coaches over there and we’ve battled for a lot of years, but when the game’s over, we shake hands. That was a battle.”

Martin said his players never quit despite the odds.

“Of course we would have liked to move on but we didn’t go dead when it got to 3-1,” Martin said. “It was just a couple of mistakes here and there. Credit to Beekmantown. They have so many players who can go. I can only praise my guys for what they’ve done getting to this point tonight.

“They’ve had a great run,” Martin added. “This was one of the top classes to play at Lake Placid in a long time. Two final fours, a bunch of wins, less than 20 losses, given no chance a lot of times and here they are — right to the end we battled.”

Martin said all seven of his seniors were team captains this winter, including Owen Magurk, who just joined the squad this season after not playing varsity hockey to add another body to Lake Placid’s limited roster.

Kroes, Moore, Damp, Cassidy, Kevin Geesler and Ryan Kane were the six seniors on the team whose careers at Lake Placid included two straight Section VII titles and two trips to the state final four.

“They’re a really good group of guys. I’ve played with them all my life,” said a heartbroken Magurk, who found a home on the Blue Bombers second forward line. “I’ve never met anyone who’s welcomed me into something so fast. Kevin and Ryan, Sean and Kamm, all the seniors convinced me to join the team. They wanted me to play, so I started playing. Today was tough. We worked really hard. It just didn’t end up in our favor.”

Geesler said playing hockey at Lake Placid will provide a lifetime of memories, and added that the underclassmen will now have carry the torch of their school’s storied hockey program.

“I really didn’t expect them to make nearly as big an impact as they did this year,” Geesler said. “Hunter Wilmot and Tyler Hinckley really impressed me, and Hunter Spotts and Jarrett Hathaway — I would say they were sketchy last year, but what a year they had this season. They’re going to be the face of this organization next year, and they’ll really going to have to step it up next season.

“They won’t have any seniors but I don’t think that will stop them from doing their best,” Geesler continued. “And to our other six seniors, it’s been a helluva ride and a final farewell. Playing hockey at this school has been one of the best experiences of my life.”

Beekmantown 3, Lake Placid 2

Eagles 0 1 2 — 3

Blue Bombers 0 1 1 — 2

Scoring

Second Period

1. LP, Kroes (Moore, Damp), :24; 2. B, Hebert (Wawrzynski), 1:21, pp.

Third Period

3. B, McCauley (Wawrzynski, Maggy), 5:11; 4. B, McCauley (Wawrzynski, Davison), 11:41; 5. LP. Wilmot (Moore, Kane), 14:44.

Shots on goal: Beekmantown 32, Lake Placid 23.

Saves: B, Harvey 21; LP, Cassidy 29.

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