GLENS FALLS — Section II’s Queensbury erupted for six unanswered goals in the third period on Saturday and skated to a 10-3 victory over Beekmantown in the NYSPHSAA Division II hockey quarterfinals.
Senior Tanner Fearman scored five goals and added an assist for the hosts (16-4-1), who scored seven of their 10 goals on the power play, with either five-on-four or five-on-three advantages.
Also, Fearman broke the school record for most points in a season with 71.
“I know we’ve never had seven power-play goals in the game, but they were earned from hard work, moving our feet and picking up a power play,” Queensbury coach Dean Williams said.
“We deserve what we earned here. Our players work hard, we spend a lot of time on special teams and it showed today.”
The Spartans will play in the Division II state semifinals on Saturday in Buffalo against Section I champion Byram Hills, which skated past Section X’s St. Lawrence Central, 4-2, in regional action.
Queensbury reached the state semifinals in 2022, but lost to Section VII’s Saranac last year in the regionals.
“We’ve got a great group of guys, so I think we have a chance of making it to Sunday,” Fearman said.
“We graduated a huge class, and these guys have put together an unbelievable season so far,” Williams said. “I’m happy for them that we can get on a charter bus on Friday and get rolling.”
The Spartans’ top line of Fearman, Ethan Kelsey (3 assists) and Ollie Coughlan (1 goal, 1 assists), accounted for 11 points.
Jack Dickerson added two goals and Cameron Porter one for the Spartans, while Eagan Breault made 27 saves in net.
Sam Bingel, Zach LaPier and Novak Jarus scored goals for the Section VII-champion Eagles (19-4) and Jack Bell made 34 saves in goal.
Queensbury held a 4-2 lead after one period and a 4-3 edge after two, with the Eagles holding the edge in second-period play.
“We knew we wanted a fast start, we wanted to get at this goalie,” Williams said. “He’s a young kid — he’s good, but I don’t think he’s faced a lot of shots this year. So we wanted to make sure we got pucks to the net quick.
“And, in the first period, we had 13 or 14 shots on net, and that’s where we wanted to be.”
The Eagles appeared to wear down late in the game, opening up the floodgates for the Spartans.
“When you’re killing that many penalties, a lot of high school teams do what we do — we only have a few people on the penalty kill and power play,” Williams said. “When you’re using those guys over and over again, the gas runs out.”
—
Queensbury 10, Beekmantown 3
BCS 2 1 0 — 3
QBY 4 0 6 — 10
First period- 1, BCS, Bingel (Z. LaPier), :36. 2, QBY, Fearman ppg (LaNoir), 3:00. 3, QBY, Ja. Wolf ppg (Marcantonio), 4:04. 4, QBY, Fearman, 5:06. 5, BCS, Z. LaPier (L. Sweenor, Bingel), 10:37. 6, QBY, Fearman (Kelsey), 15:09.
Second period- 7, BCS, Jarus (E. Sweenor), 3:07.
Third period- 8, QBY, Dickerson ppg (Kelsey), 2:38. 9, QBY, Fearman ppg (Dickerson), 5:35. 10, QBY, Dickerson ppg (Coughlan, Kelsey), 7:48. 11, QBY, Coughlan ppg (Fearman), 8:27. 12, QBY, Fearman ppg, 10:25. 13, QBY, Porter (Jo. Wolf), 11:42.
Shots on goal- QBY, 44-30.
Saves- Bell, BCS, 34. Breault, QBY, 27.