Christopher Camelio of Falmouth High School trips over the foot of Scarborough defenseman Eric Murray during the second period of the Class A South final in Lewiston on Tuesday.
LEWISTON — There was a relative lack of action during power plays when Scarborough and Falmouth collided for the Class A South boys’ hockey regional final Tuesday.
After the penalties were killed off, things got interesting.
Momentum swings started when penalties ended, and Scarborough netted the only goal one second after a power play in a 1-0 victory at Androscoggin Bank Colisee.
The top-ranked Red Storm (16-2-3) blasted four shots on goal during their first power play of the game. The next two man-advantages in its favor weren’t as fruitful. One late in the first period didn’t produce a shot.
Another power play late in the second period saw just one shot in its final seconds, but Mason Parks’ attempt from the right point rebounded off Falmouth goalie Spencer Pierce. The sophomore netminder tried corralling the loose puck, but it slid underneath him. Scarborough’s Cam Smith came swooping into the crease and flipped the puck into the open net.
“Getting the pucks to the net,” Scarborough coach Norm Gagne said of simplifying the lone goal. “Cam Smith played a heck of a game tonight.”
Scarborough just had to hold on from there. The second-seeded Yachtsmen (16-5) didn’t make that easy.
“Near the end there, the last five or six minutes, they were putting a lot of pressure,” Gagne said.
Falmouth sent 10 shots at Scarborough goalie Ross LeBlond in the third, starting with a shorthanded try by Robbie Armitage less than two minutes into the period.
“It was pretty much, I couldn’t really understand what was happening for the most part,” LeBlond said. “I was just playing hockey.”
The Yachtsmen called a timeout with 1:51 left to try and set up a game-tying goal. Pierce wasn’t pulled for almost another minute, when Falmouth finally gained an extended possession — and after Pierce had to stop Matt Caron on a breakaway.
“We weren’t having success off the faceoffs. A minute-fifty, I wanted to get possession of the puck,” Falmouth coach Deron Barton said.
Falmouth had one last gasp on a faceoff to the left of LeBlond with 9.9 seconds left, but a final scoring chance didn’t follow.
While power plays didn’t amount to much for Scarborough, the Red Storm’s man-advantages meant chances to score for Falmouth. Armitage’s chance early in the third wasn’t an outlier, but rather a movie played on repeat in front of LeBlond.
“They’re fast. They take the puck to the net. We work hard on that,” Barton said. “I’m a big fan of driving to the net. And we have the kids that have the gas to do it, and the speed to do it.”
LeBlond noted that he let in a shorthanded goal against Falmouth during the regular season, so he knew how dangerous the Yachtsmen could be in those situations.
Even-strength chances were often hard to come by for the Yachtsmen. Gagne said that’s a testament to his team’s preferred defensive style.
“I told you guys after the last game that defense is the key,” Gagne said. “We really gritted it out tonight, and our defense won again.”
Now the Red Storm have a chance to defend its state championship from a year ago. Gagne said he didn’t expect for his team to be on the doorstep of another title, but its defensive-zone play has carried Scarborough to Saturday’s Class A state final.
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
The Scarborough High School hockey team show their fans the Class A South championship plaque after a 1-0 victory over Falmouth in Lewiston on Tuesday.
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