High school boys hockey: Salmon River sweeps to Section 10 Division II title

But Salmon River, the state’s top-rated Division II team, defeated OFA 7-3 Monday night for a second straight Section 10 title at Clarkson’s Cheel Arena.

The Shamrocks head into state play with an 20-2 overall record and are 15-0 in Division II, going undefeated in NAC and sectional play for the first time in program history.

Salmon River will head to Rye to open state tournament play.

“We have never won all of our league and sectional games before and it is because these guys come to every practice ready to work hard and they come to every game ready to play,” said Salmon River Coach Tim Cook, “And that is what they did (Monday). A lot of credit should go to Shawn Miller who coached these guys when they were little kids while I took the older kids in youth hockey. We worked together for many years.”

The Shamrocks also swept the major individual awards as forward Evan Collette was honored as the NAC Division II MVP. Defenseman Kade Cook received the Outstanding Sportsmanship Award from the officials board and goaltender Rick Chartrand edged out OFA’s Ty Jacobs (2.55-2.73) for the Division II Goaltender of the Year Award as the goalie with the lowest goals-against average.

Both goalies were sharp in Monday’s game as Jacobs made 47 saves with 21 in the third period and Chartrand collected 18 of his 25 saves in a third period. “We had a great season but we just got beat by a better team,” said OFA coach Jon Frederick. “We won 13 league games, which is the best we have done in Division II and won 18 games on the season which is outstanding.”

“They skate well from top to bottom and they have 10 guys who deserve to be All-Northern,” Frederick said of Salmon River. “And they have a bunch of guys who have won championships in one or two other sports.”

Collette credited the work of the coaches involved in North Franklin Youth Hockey and Salmon River for the consistent motivation in the Shamrocks’ cast.

“Every since we were knee-high little kids our coaches have always pushed us to be the best we could be. We did that all season and again (Monday),” Collette said. “We knew that it is tough to beat a good team three times so we came out looking for a fast start. And we did that.”

Collette scored the first goal of the night and set up Carter Johnson for the second goal for the Shamrocks, who took a 3-0 first period lead and then scored four unanswered tallies after OFA’s Dylan Irvine converted a pretty power play set-up from Tegan Fredericks 8 minutes, 33 seconds into the second period.

Collette opened the scoring with clear shot from the right flank off a pass from Carter Johnson and set up Johnson for a hard drive to cap a 3-2 break, following a brilliant kick save by Chartrand to deny an OFA equalizer.

The Blue Devils never had another chance to shoot for a tie as Oscar Cook stole a breakout pass deep in the OFA zone and neatly placed a shot just under the crossbar for a 3-0 lead.

After Irvine got OFA on the board in the second period, the Shamrocks’ Connor Dishaw scored a power play goal from Luke Miller; Johnson scored for second time after breaking in on goal with Kade Cook and Caiden Cartier assisting; and Dishaw upped the margin to 6-1 after two periods, directing a point-blank shot into net off a pass from Chase Lewis.

Collette opened the third period with the Shamrocks’ final goal and his 34th of the season by converting from Cartier and Kade Cook on a power play.

The Blue Devils scored the last two goals after killing off two two-man-up power plays.

Jack Mills set up Tyler Sovie for a close-range wrist shot with 2:04 to play and buried a sharp-angle shot with 56 seconds to play in an all-senior connection from Irvine and Landin McDonald.