York’s Jacob Martin deke’s Greely goalie Josh Lawless to get him out of position to slide the puck past him late in the 3rd period to tie the score and send the game into overtime where York prevailed.
LEWISTON — Thinks looked pretty bleak for second-seeded York on Wednesday in the Class B South regional final.
With 4:43 to play, the Wildcats trailed by one, and No. 4 Greely was about to start its fifth power play of the night.
But York clawed its way back, getting a shorthanded, tying goal from Jacob Martin and then an overtime winner from Andrew Bertolini to earn a stunning 3-2 victory over the Rangers at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.
York will face North champion Waterville for the state crown Saturday at the Colisee at 1 p.m.
Martin came from nowhere to tie the game at two while the Wildcats were killing Colin Palmer’s penalty. The Rangers left the puck at center ice after a miscommunication. Martin picked the puck up and skated in on a breakaway, goaded Greely goalie Josh Lawless into making the first move and shot it into the net with 3:19 remaining.
It was his second goal of the game.
Bertolini then sent York to the state title game with a shot from the low slot.
“My teammates forced the puck up to me and all I had to was put it home,” Bertolini said.
Greely controlled most of the play in the opening frame, in large part thanks to three power plays. The first two — both infractions against Martin — the Rangers couldn’t establish a rhythm. The puck squirted out through the neutral zone multiple times on both power plays. The Rangers iced the puck in each man advantage.
On the third power play, things change for Greely. York’s Julius Lundgren took a five-minute major for boarding with 4:04 remaining in the period. Matt Kramlich made them pay with 1:41 remaining in the period. His shot inside the right circle beat Keenan Gamache on the blocker side, just inside the far post.
Colby Robinson notched the lone assist.
Greely outshot York 13-3 in the opening period.
“As I said to these guys with a little over three minutes left in the game, we held these guys to one goal,” Greely coach Barry Mothes said. “Which was a great effort, starting with Josh (Lawless), and the defense played a lot of good hockey. Forwards were forechecking and playing good (defense) in the neutral zone. I liked the way we were playing.”
In the second, once York was able to play mostly 5-on-5, the Wildcats established themselves, and outshot the Rangers 12-5.
“The first period was upside down with all the penalties we took,” York coach Jim Powers said. “We came out of that thing, especially killing off a five minute major and we were down 1-0. We have been talking to this team all year long about winning the period. So we lost the first period. What’s the big deal? One goal we can get it back. Lo and behold, we come back and we outshot them significantly in the second, we were able to run all three lines again, which helped us tremendously because we were burning our penalty killers.”
One of those shots found the back of the net when Martin took a Sunday stroll around the offense zone and went in on Greely goalie Josh Lawless, jamming the puck between Lawless’ left pad and the post. The goal came at the 5:15 mark of the middle period. Max Pickett notched the lone assist on the goal.
The Wildcats had a couple chances to go up 2-1 as they had a couple half open nets to shoot at but couldn’t capitalized.
Greely’s best chance in the second came shorthanded when Andy Moore had a breakaway, but he shot it right into Gamache’s gut for the easy save.
Jake MacDonald gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead in the third. The Wildcats had to get back onside on a delayed offsides call. Ryan Sullivan, who was at the defensive blue line, found a wide open MacDonald at the offensive blue line. MacDonald went in all alone and ripped a shot past Gamache at the 1:35 mark.
York’s Thomas Carr tries to tuck the puck in past Greely goalie Josh Lawless during a wrap around move late in regulation during Wednesday’s championship game at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston.
York’s Andrew Bertolini, bottom right, watches his game winning shot in overtime slide past Greely goalie Josh Lawless to advance to Saturday’s Class B state title game.
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