Junior Senators Spread Scoring Around in Division Title Clinch
The Binghamton Junior Senators got multiple goals from four players Sunday while wrapping up a successful defense of their North American 3 Hockey League Northeast Division title with a 14-1 rout of the Long Beach Sharks.
Brad Becker had a hat trick while Thomas Mandel Jr., Eric Melso and Dan Espe scored two each.
The Junior Senators piled up an 89-16 shot advantage while improving to 31-3-0-3 and joining the Midwest’s St. Louis Junior Blues as the first two teams to clinch NA3HL division titles this season.
LEADERSHIP CHANGE: The Steamboat Wranglers regained the Rocky Mountain Junior Hockey League lead by sweeping the defending champion Pikes Peak Miners 8-2 and 2-1.
Shawn Catudal scored two goals and added two assists when the Wranglers rolled Friday to break a 15-game Miners winning streak.
Steamboat jumped on Pikes Peak with three goals in the first period and five in the second.
Catudal and Braeden Gillmore scored in Saturday’s win.
Steamboat had to hang on against a 6-on-3 situation late when Pikes Peak pulled its goalie with a two-man advantage.
The Wranglers (27-7-0-1) lead by three points over the Miners (26-8-0-0).
MOVING UP: Defenseman Jack St. Ivany had points in all three games as the Sioux Falls Stampede picked up five of a possible six points to move into third place in the United States Hockey League Western Conference standings.
The Yale commit, who played for Team USA in the World Junior A Challenge, is third among USHL defensemen in points with 26 in 36 games.
St. Ivany scored his fourth goal of the season Feb. 6 in a 4-3 win over the Fargo Force, and then had two assists Friday in a 4-2 victory over the Lincoln Stars. He added one more assist in Saturday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Omaha Lancers.
EASTERN ROUNDUP: Trevor Pray scored five goals in a pair of weekend wins that helped lift the Walpole Express to the top of the #Eshow Power Rankings for Eastern Hockey League teams.
Pray scored twice in a 5-2 Saturday win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights then had a hat trick in a 4-2 Sunday victory over the Philadelphia Revolution, the team with the EHL’s best record.
Nick Sorgio lowered his goals-against average to 1.37 by stopping 46 of 48 shots in a pair of weekend wins by the Northern Conference-leading New Hampshire Avalanche.
Mike McPherson returned to the Boston Junior Rangers and posted his goal and three assists while helping the team go 3-0-1 in his first four games back.
Vermont Lumberjacks defenseman Patrick Manning extended his scoring streak to five games with a goal and an assist in each game of a two-game weekend sweep of the Valley Jr. Warriors.
COLLEGE COMMITMENTS: Luke Manning, a center for the USHL’s Des Moines Buccaneers, committed to play at Air Force Academy.
The 18-year-old from Stillwater, Minnesota, has gained more ice time as the season progressed. He has three goals and four assists in 37 games.
Cam Cook, a forward with the North American Hockey League’s Shreveport Mudbugs, has committed to play at Niagara University.
The 20-year-old from Rochester, New York, is in his fourth season in the NAHL with 96 points in 156 career games. He shares the scoring lead on the division-leading Mudbugs with 15 goals and 16 assists in 35 games.
ONE-TIMERS: The Metro Jets got 30 saves from Andrew Kormos and goals from six different players in a 6-1 win over the Toledo Cherokee to extend their NA3HL winning streak to 17 games. … Matt Cameron had five goals and two assists while going plus-6 to help the New Jersey Titans to four points in three NAHL games.
Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.