AUBURN — The Brunswick Dragons used three power play goals to earn a 4-2 road win against the Leavitt/Poland/Oak Hill/Gray-New Gloucester Kings.
Brunswick outshot the Kings 27-16 overall, but found most of its scoring chances on the power play, finishing the game 3-for-5 overall on the man-advantage.
“It was working for us,” Brunswick coach Michael Misner said. “We haven’t specifically worked on our power play in practice, but what we’ve done is worked on things like cycling the puck, stuff that obviously helps on power play.”
The Kings bottled up the Brunswick breakout to start the game, making it difficult for the Dragons to leave their own zone. On the other end, they took advantage of Brunswick’s pressure to create the game’s first scoring chance that started when Dylan Sellinger took a hit to move the puck up to Reese Collins. Collins took the pass and went in alone on Dragons goalie Spencer Marquis. Maquis held the puck under his pad long enough as the net was dislodged, but the puck appeared to cross the goal line. After the officials discussed the play, it was ruled no goal.
The Dragons gained some momentum on the power play midway through the period after Sam Tibbets was called for tripping. Brunswick defenseman Henry Burnham tapped the puck down to Jack St. Pierre, who curled to the middle of the ice and ripped a shot passed the glove of Kings goaltender Spencer Michaud.
The Kings responded just over two minutes later. Bryce Doucette took advantage of some confusion from Brunswick defenders, picking off the puck and skating in alone and ripping a shot over the shoulder of Marquis.
Jacob Dooring answered just over a minute later for the Dragons, flying down the wing and placing a shot over the glove of Michaud with 2:31 left in the period. Michaud fought off a flurry of late chances for the Dragons, stopping nine of 11 shots overall in the first.
Brunswick extended the lead to 3-1 with another power play goal. Burnham, Doring, and St. Pierre connected on a nice passing play, ending with St. Pierre getting a tap-in goal just nine seconds into the power play. The goal marked St. Pierre’s second power play tally of the game.
“We had a good breakout on the power play,” St. Pierre said. “We practice that a lot in practice, to try to hit the swingman and pass it up and try to get it deep.”
“They just took advantage of their opportunities,” Kings coach Joe Hutchinson said. “Five-on-five, we’re a young team and we’re finally starting to buy into the systems. We had a lot less breakdowns today.”
After St. Pierre was called for charging, the Kings got a goal back on their first power play of the game 6:41 into the period. Nathan Marcotte followed his own shot and found Austin Taylor, who banked a shot off the pad of Marquis and into the goal.
The Dragons, though, regained the two-goal advantage late in the second, once again with a power play tally. Scout Masse found Doring in the slot for a one-timer that deflected off the post and in with just 14 seconds left on the clock.
Shots in the third period were even as the Kings turned up the pressure on Brunswick. Marquis was up to the challenge in the Brunswick net, stopping all seven shots he faced in the third.
“That kid made some great saves,” Misner said. “I mean, to see it — it was just like our guys are getting beat not getting back and Spencer’s right there seeing the puck. He saw the puck really well tonight.”
The Kings came up empty on their lone power play of the period, and couldn’t solve Marquis to climb back into the game. Michaud kept Brunswick off the scoreboard at the other end, with his best save coming on a shorthanded bid by Doring on the penalty kill.
“Xavier played extremely well today, he kept us in the game,” Hutchinson said. “When we had breakdowns, he made the big saves when we needed them.”
The Dragons improve to 5-1 and currently sit atop the Class B South Heal point standings, with the one blemish on the record a 2-1 loss to Yarmouth. The Kings fall to 1-3-1 with the loss and will look to bounce back with a home game against Cape Elizabeth on Saturday. Hutchinson feels that his team is close to turning it around after holding Brunswick to one even strength goal.
“Were getting there,” he said. “It’s a young team,. Hopefully we can build a little momentum off of this game.”
The Dragons will return home to face Gorham on Wednesday at Sidney J. Watson Arena.
Marquis made 14 saves for Brunswick, while Michaud made 23 saves for the Kings.
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