Sports

Pearl River Breaks Out Offensively, Beats Ossining (VIDEO)

Chris Alexander scored twice and assisted on another goal and Kevin Murphy scored two to lead Pearl River to a 7-0 victory over Ossining in the Section 1 Division 2 playoffs at Sport-O-Rama.

The Pearl River ice hockey team lost five of its final seven games of the regular season, with injuries taking a major toll.

The Pirates, the No. 6 seed, had most of their key players back on the ice for Monday's Section 1 Division 2 playoff game against No. 11 Ossining and it showed.

Pearl River broke loose offensively after a scoreless first period, scoring three in the second on the way to a 7-0 victory.

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"We hadn't played in a little while (since Feb. 15)," Pearl River Coach Tony Capone said. "They got their legs back.

"We want pucks to the net. We want to get rebounds. We want to dictate play a little. When you are off for a long time like that, it's even more prevalent. Get it to the net and good things will happen."

Find out what's happening in Pearl Riverwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"We started throwing the puck to the net more," said senior forward Chris Alexander of the second period. "We just started crashing the net and the goals started coming."

Alexander scored two goals and assisted on another. He was one of the players who battled injuries late in the season, but he was back healthy Monday. Senior forward Mike Henry, who has a broken arm, was also back on the ice.

"Getting healthy is a big plus for us," Capone said. "Mike Henry and Chris had been banged up. We lost Scotty Burns for the season. It really hurt us a lot (toward the end of the regular season). We were out of our element. We got guys back and we played well (tonight)."

"We're back playing like we were at the beginning of the season," Alexander said, referring to the team's 11-game winning streak.

Alexander helped get the Pirates going Monday, setting up freshman forward Kevin Murphy in front of the net Murphy beat Ossining goaltender Luke Rothschild with a short-handed goal to give Pearl River a 1-0 lead 2:25 into the second period.

"That was a big goal," Capone said. "It really got us going."

Alexander pushed the lead to 2-0 on an assist by Connor Ocasal five minutes later. Murphy added his second goal of the period off Connor McMorrow's assist at 13:46 to push the margin to 3-0.

Max McGee, Alexander and Brendan O'Dea all scored unassisted goals in the third period for Pearl River. McGee also set up a goal by Ocasal.

Pearl River (13-6-1) will go on to play No. 3 John Jay-Cross River in the quarterfinals 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Brewster Ice Arena. The semifinals are scheduled for Friday, with the championship 1:30 p.m. Sunday at West Point.

Section 1 Division 2 Playoffs
Pearl River 7, Ossining 0
First Period:
No Scoring
Second Period:
1. Kevin Murphy (Chris Alexander assist); 2. Alexander (Connor Ocasal); 3. Murphy (Connor McMorrow)
Third Period:
4. Max McGee; 5. Ocasal (McGee); 6. Alexander; 7. Brendan O'Dea


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