AUBURN – Getting the early lead hasn’t been a common occurrence for the Edward Little hockey team.
EL changed that trend Saturday night, but soon found itself in an all too familiar spot. After taking the early lead, the Red Eddies fell behind on a short-handed goal in the second period and struggled to catch up the rest of the way in a 4-1 loss to Falmouth.
“We’re always in a hole, and that was surprising that we came out and got that goal,” said EL coach Craig Latuscha. “That was one of our first leads of the year. That kind of pumped the kids up.”
Falmouth (4-3-1) managed to make the best of its special teams. It got the game-winning goal short-handed and built a 3-1 lead on the power play. EL, meanwhile, went 0-for-4 on the power play.
“Special teams are huge, especially in our league,” said Falmouth coach Scott Rousseau, whose club is unbeaten in its last four outings. “A lot of teams don’t have a lot of scoring right now. There’s a lot of parity in high school hockey. Every game is close and tight.”
Travis Jordan had two goals for Falmouth. Mike Chase had a goal and an assist while Nick Galli had a pair of assists. EL’s goal came from Corey LaRue. Red Eddies goaltender Adam Loudermilk faced 37 shots and had 33 saves.
“Our goalie was making big saves all night long,” said Latuscha.
Kevin Smith’s steal of the puck and centering pass for LaRue at 4:45 was the first strike for EL (2-7), but Falmouth managed to tie the game before the period ended. Jordan put in a rebound from the right side with 2:01 left.
Though Falmouth missed out on a chase to score on a two-man advantage in the first period, the Yachtsmen made up for it on an EL power play in the second. After a Falmouth steal at its own blue line led to a face-off in the EL defensive zone, James Tolan won the face-off and cut through the slot for the goal with 4:32 left in the period.
“James made a beautiful effort on that shorthanded goal,” said Rousseau.
Jordan then made it 3-1 at 3:35 of the third period on the power play. Galli kept the puck in the zone and fed Jordan at the left circle. Chase added the fourth tally with 4:46 left, and Falmouth goaltender C.J. Fortier was solid in net as EL outshot Falmouth 10-7 in the final period.
“It was a goaltender’s game,” said Latuscha. “Our goalie had a lot of shots on him. They had a couple more chances than we did obviously. They put the puck in the net. I’ve got to give the kids credit. They finally played a full three periods.”
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