PLATTSBURGH — For the second time in two days, the Champlain Valley Junior A Elite was taken the distance by an opponent in the annual Applebee’s Junior A Summer Shootout at the Lake City Stars Arena.

And, as was the case the night before in a 4-2 win over the Northern Connecticut Wings, the Elite responded to the challenge.

Ryan Durocher’s goal with under seven minutes to play in the second half rallied the A Elite to a hard-fought 4-2 victory over the Syracuse Stars.

Earlier in the day, Champlain Valley skated to a 7-2 win over the Hartford Junior Wolfpack.

The A Elite improved their record in the annual tournament to 3-0 and will be the top seed entering today’s playoff round.

Champlain Valley gets a bye in the quarterfinals and will play an opponent to be determined in a 10:30 a.m. semifinal game. The Syracuse Stars, meanwhile, will be the second seed in the playoff round.



A Elite 4

Syracuse Stars 2

Durocher’s goal broke a 2-all tie in the second half and put Champlain Valley ahead to stay.

Bell added an empty-net goal with 12 seconds left in the contest.

“It was a great game between two highly-skilled teams who both really wanted to win,” said A Elite head coach Justin Frechette. “It was a NCAA Division I-paced game and had a little bit of everything — speed, talent and finesse.”

Syracuse jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first half before the A Elite got goals from Darcy Findlay and Johnathan Provencher to tie it in the first two minutes of the second half.

“We controlled the pace early on, but they kid of took it to us towards the end of the first half,” Frechette said. They capitalized a couple of odd-man rushes and you have to give them credit. That’s the first time this year we’ve been down 2-0 at the half.

“But, we came out and got two quick ones. That was key, especially getting the first one.

“We changed our offensive zone system because they were jumping. They were jumping our defense and we did a lot better job getting the pick down low in the second half.”

Jody O’Neill was between the pipes for the A Elite.

“Both teams worked hard and it was a clean, hard-fought game,” said Frechette. “The goaltending on both teams was outstanding.

“I couldn’t be any prouder of the way our team responded to adversity. We wanted a test like this and were able to pass it.”



A Elite 7

Hartford Wolfpack 2

Emmond Bell and Findlay scored two goals each for Champlain Valley, while Greg Eskedjian, Nick Sheehan and Durocher contributed one apiece.

Alex Archibald was in net for the A Elite, who jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the first half.

“We got up right away and were able to try a few different things which we wanted to do,” Frechette said. “We were also able to get out of there with no injuries.”

Stars edge Wings

In other games, the Syracuse Stars posted a 3-2 win over the Northern Connecticut Wings, the Wings skated to a 9-4 win over the Hackettstown Americans, the Americans a 7-4 victory over the Powershack and a 6-1 decision over the Hartford Junior Wolfpack.

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A Elite 7, Hartford Wolfpack 2

Hartford Wolfpack 2 0 — 2

A Elite 5 2 — 7

First-half scoring- 1, E, Findlay shg (Voisin, Bergin). 2, E, Bell (Lavictoire, Demers). 3, H, Strakosch ppg (Preston), 4, E, Findlay (Voisin, Ayotte). 5, E, Eskedjian (Bell, Taylor). 6, E, Sheehan (Montgomery, Voisin). 7, H, Gabor (Preston, Vets).

Second-half scoring- 8, E, Durocher (Findlay, Taylor). 9, E, Bell (Lachapelle).

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A Elite 4, Syracuse Stars 2

Syracuse Stars 2 0 — 2

A Elite 0 4 — 4

First-half scoring- 1, S, Fischer (LaRose, Wilson), 2, S, Wilson (Lewis, Cannizaro).

Second-half scoring- 3, E, Findlay (Taylor, Eskedjian). 4, E, Provencher (Bancroft, O’Neill). 5, E, Durocher (Sheehan). 6, E, Bell eng (Taylor, O’Neill).