In their final game of the calendar year, they defeated the Northeast Generals 7-3 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Saturday afternoon.
The break couldn’t come at a better time for the Fighting Spirit. They are 5-4-1 in their last 10 games after starting the season 14-1-0.
“It’s a nice positive way to end the first half (of the season),” L/A Fighting Spirit coach Rod Simmons said. “We played a discipline game for the most part that we haven’t seen a lot of late. So I think the guys will see the discipline will carry through and the extra curricular activities aren’t needed.”
They return to action on Jan. 9 when they travel to Biddeford to face the Maine Wild. Their next game at the Colisee is Jan. 16, also against the Wild as part of their “Hockey Day in Lewiston” festivities.
The Fighting Spirit were led by Austin and Colby Siering who had five points combined on the night. Colby Siering had a goal and two assists, while Austin had a goal and an assist.
“We started right from the gate and we knew we needed this win badly coming off a bad loss there back at home (last) weekend,” Colby Siering said. “We just put our minds to it and got it done before we head on to break.”
Austin Siering gave the Fighting Spirit a 1-0 lead 7:20 into the first period when his shot from the right point fluttered past Generals goalie Trevor Trudeau. Tyler Sheridan and Colby Siering were credited with the assists.
Colby Siering stretched the lead to 2-0 when Walker Hamilton’s initial shot was deflected off Colby’s stick at the 11:55 mark of the opening frame. Hamilton and Mark Ferullo were credited with the assists.
“It was just a great shot from the point from Walker Hamilton,” Colby Siering said. “He just saw me go back post and I just put my stick down. He hit it right on.”
Colby said the team had been practicing those types of plays this week in practice.
The goals kept coming in the second period for the Fighting Spirit. Mark Ferullo scored on a power play 2:15 into the middle frame. The assists went to Mike Heffernan and Brett Bittner. Simon Corriveau stretched the lead to 4-0 after he jammed the puck past Trudeau. Alexander Friend picked up the lone assist, with the goal coming at the 14:22 mark.
L/A also went on the man advantage when a penalty called after the goal. Derric Trudeau went off for roughing. While the Fighting Spirit couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity, Heffernan scored four seconds after the penalty expired with 3:26 remaining in the period. The assists went to Kyle Sheridan and David Fish.
“Right off the bat, the things we worked on this week was driving the net and middle lane drive,” Simmons said. “We picked some goals off of that today. The bottom line is if we play our systems, we are solid. If we go away from our systems and undisciplined what happened to us of late will continue to happen.”
The Generals scored 11 seconds later to get on the board. Austin Braley lit the lamp and Kevin Perry and Ruslan Cernych were credited with assists.
Colby Siering found Brett Bittner crashing the net for the sixth Fighting Spirit goal with 31 seconds remaining in the second period. Friend picked up the secondary assist.
In the third, the Generals showed some life when Perry scored a power-play tally at the 6:17 mark. Travis Hyde cut the lead in half after he scored with 6:41 left to play. Brendan Collins and Cernych got the assists.
Northeast was 1 of 2 on the man advantage, while the Fighting Spirit were 1 of 3.
“I think when we play our systems and play our game, we can compete with anybody,” Northeast coach Bryan Erikson said. “We will set ourselves up for a big second half. I thought that after the first period, where we didn’t play our system, we started to create some bounces. Those bounces you talk about, you make them yourselves, and that’s by hard work. We weren’t doing that and they were.
The Fighting Spirit would add the extra point to make it 7-3 when Corriveau’s shot went through Trevor Trudeau wickets with 67 seconds remaining in the game. Austin Siering and David Fish added to their point total with assists.
Marcus Mitchell made 25 saves in the victory, while Trevor Trudeau stopped 43 shots in the loss.
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