AUBURN – The Edward Little boys’ hockey team is looking for progress from each game. The Red Eddies hung tough against the Scarborough Red Storm on Wednesday, but couldn’t overcome an early two-goal deficit and fell 4-1 at Norway Savings Bank Arena.
“We are getting a hang of this thing,” Edward Little coach Brett Barrett said. “We are are playing better defensively; we got more shots today; obviously, every game we have given up less and less goals. It’s a process, and we are working on it every day very hard.”
The Red Storm top line of Patrick Clonan, Anthony Burnham and Justin Perry got off to a quick start Wednesday. The trio factored into the first goal when Burnham and Perry found Clonan 54 seconds into the game for a 1-0 lead.
Clonan and Burnham, both sophomores, and Perry, a senior, gave the team the energy Red Storm coach Norm Gagne was looking for.
“That’s what I said in the locker room to the kids today: they set the tone for us,” Gagne said. “That first group, two sophomores and a senior, they really set the tone for us today.”
Scarborough looked to make it 2-0 only 43 seconds later when Skylar Pettingill was hauled down and awarded a penalty shot. But Red Eddies goalie Ben Feldman kept the deficit to one by making a stop.
While Pettingill didn’t score, Gagne was pleased with the burst of speed to the net that led to the penalty-shot attempt.
The Red Storm kept the puck mostly in the offensive zone in the first period and outshot the Red Eddies 7-1. With 2:51 remaining in the opening stanza, Brett Rockey stretched the lead to 2-0 when he jammed home the puck on the power play. The assists went to Soty Giftos and Eric Murray.
“We have given up a lot of power-play goals this year, and we gave up another one on a dumb penalty,” Barrett said. “We are trying to curb that, and it’s slowly happening. We are getting less penalties, but, again, it’s a process. These kids are getting better; I don’t know if they realize it, they are getting frustrated, but we will get there.”
In the second period, the play was more even as Scarborough only outshot the Red Eddies 7-5, but neither team could find the back of the net. The Red Eddies had two power-play chances, while Scarborough only had one.
“That’s one of the things I mentioned to the team after the (second) period: we got away from our game by starting to get (individualistic),” Gagne said. “We were trying to do too much individually instead of playing team hockey. One of the things we have to accept is we are a grit team. That’s what we are. We aren’t a fancy team, we aren’t going to score a fancy goal. It’s going to be hard work.”
The Red Storm were 1-for-4 on the man advantage, while the Red Eddies were scoreless on their four chances.
Scarborough (3-3-1) continued to pepper Feldman in the third. Perry found the back of the net right after the Red Storm ended a shorthanded stint, stealing the puck in the slot and going to the backhand to put the Red Storm up 3-0. The unassisted marker came at 8:51 mark.
Logan Alexander found Eli McBride to get the Red Eddies (1-4-0) on the board 35 seconds later.
Pettingill got some redemption on the missed penalty shot by scoring an empty-netter with 45 seconds remaining in the contest.
Even though the Red Eddies didn’t score with the empty net, Barrett was pleased with their effort at trying to cut into the deficit.
“We had three really good chances on that face-off scenario in the last 45 seconds,” Barrett said. “We got the puck to the net like we wanted to. We didn’t get the rebound like we wanted to, but, again, it was a good hockey play that we weren’t making at the beginning of the year.”
Scarborough’s Brandon Wasser only needed nine saves for the victory in net, while Feldman made 26 stops for the Red Eddies.
nfournier@sunjournal.com
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