AUBURN — It was only a matter of time before the Hornets found their sting.
After a furious opening period and an evenly-played middle frame, Leavitt turned on the jets in the third period, outshooting Gray-New Gloucester/Poland by nine while holding the Patriotic Knights without a single offering on net.
But it still took the Hornets until overtime to close out their second victory of the season.
Jacob Gladu pounded a rebound past Gray-NG/Poland keeper Calvin Shelley 4:45 into overtime on a shot by Tyler Hutchinson to lift the Hornets to a 5-4 come-from-behind win over the Patriotic Knights in the opening game of the Gipper’s Sports Grill Holiday Classic at Ingersoll Arena on Friday night.
“They played good defense, they’re well-coached and it was a tough game,” Leavitt coach Dave Boucher said. “They covered the rebounds well, and their goalie was making the first save most of the time. We have to work hard to get those rebounds.”
“We finally got a good rebound,” Gladu said of the winning goal. “The first shot was a good one, it bounced up in the air and I got lucky enough to hit it out of the air and into the open net.”
Leavitt outshot Gray-NG/Poland 36-16 on the game, including 15-0 in the third period and overtime.
Gladu was one of four Hornets to score a goal, with Connor Violette tallying a pair and Ian Durgin and Clay Rowland adding one each. The Hornets’ depth served them well in the final minutes of the game, where they had an obvious advantage in puck possession and speed.
“We worked all of our players. They all got ice time tonight,” Leavitt coach Dave Boucher said. “We knew we had the legs third period.”
Durgin got things started for the Hornets just 2:34 into the first when he popped the puck past Shelley after a long rush up the left side.
The lead lasted all of 23 seconds. Jordan Rouillard fired a shot off a faceoff that beat Leavitt keeper Nick Allen to knot things up at one.
Violette’s first, at 3:38 gave Leavitt a 2-1 lead, and the Hornets pushed it to 3-1 at 8:18 on Rowland’s tally after a Durgin one-timer.
“We had a rough start. I think (Shelley) had a hard time with some of the rebounds. Then we settled down, our special teams were good and we played well.”
The Patriotic Knights cut into the Leavitt lead late in the frame when Lucas Nickerson followed his own shot and poked the puck over the line behind Allen, who thought he had it covered.
Nevin Rand, who later left the game with an arm injury, evened thing up 5:58 into the middle frame, and the Patriotic Knights took their first lead at 8:40 on a Ryan Davala strike.
Then, they lost their legs.
“We really got gassed,” Rand said. “We were missing three of our top ten players to start the game, and then we lost Nevin at the end of the second. We were scrambling there shorthanded.”
The Patriotic Knights had one chance in overtime, but the shot sailed wide, and they never had the chance for an offensive-zone faceoff.
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