The Blue Lobsters were made up of players from Maine prep schools, including North Yarmouth Academy, Hebron Academy, Kents Hill and Berwick Academy.
Four different players found the back of the net for the Spirit in the win, led by Colby Siering’s two goals and Dylan Vrees’ goal and assist.
“I am not a big fan of exhibition games, but because we start the season so early, I thought it was important to get one in,” Fighting Spirit owner and coach Rod Simmons said. “So it served its purpose. Now we will go back and we have team building weekends planned. I think there are things we can do away from the game that are just as important as in the game.”
The Fighting Spirit came out strong on the opening shift. Vrees put home a Nick Hudson rebound in the slot a minute into the contest for a 1-0 lead. Ryan Macintosh also assisted.
Things started to settled down for the Blue Lobsters. They got the first power play of the game with 7:15 remaining in the opening period as Colby Siering went off for boarding. But the Fighting Spirit found the back of the net, anyway. The home team was down a man when a pair of Blue Lobsters defenders had some miscommunication in front of their own net. Danny Heffernan stole the puck and put it past the Blue Lobster’s goaltender Jeremy Thelven. The goal came 6:03 remaining in the stanza.
“I don’t have a top line, I have lines that I try to equalize (in playing time),” Simmons said. “It may have looked like a top line tonight because they probably had a little more jump than everyone else.”
Colby Siering redeemed himself on his first shift after his penalty when he crashed hard to the net and found the loose puck to make it 3-0 Fighting Spirit at the 15:14 mark.
The lone goal in the second period came from Alexander Friend. He was behind the net and he tried to throw a puck to the front. It deflected off Thelven’s leg into the net at the 5:24 mark into the period. J.P. Chauvin picked up the lone assist on the goal.
The Fighting Spirit went on the penalty kill three times in the stanza including a double-minor. After Claes Endre stopped the first 17 shots of the game for the Fighting Spirit, back-up Zack Barry saw plenty of shots on the third Blue Lobsters power play of the period. He stopped 14 of 16 shots.
Thelven made 25 saves in the losing effort.
“Everybody was playing if we won or lost,” Simmons said. “You look at the situation where we had (nine) power plays against us to two for. This are things we have to battle through. So, those are things that will tire guys out in that situation. I think we dealt a lot of different issues tonight and now we shake the tree and start back on Monday.”
The Blue Lobsters had one power play goal on their nine chances and the Fighting Spirit went scoreless on their two.
Matt Brooks put the Blue Lobsters on the board 24 seconds into the third period when he fired a snap shot in the slot. Alex Krai picked up the assist.
With his brother Austin in the penalty box, Colby Siering scored his second goal of the game with 7:10 remaining in the period.
“The first time getting out there playing a game as team, it was hard to see where people are and getting the chemistry going,” Colby Siering said. “As a team it’s hard to go out there and skate with them, but I think we figured it out at the end.
Isac Nordstrom — last year’s Travis Roy Award winner out of Falmouth — scored a power play goal for the Blue Lobsters with 3:42 left to play.
Cam Dufault added the empty-netter in the final minute for the Fighting Spirit.
nfournier@sunjournal.com
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