KENTS HILL — Jonah Roy may only be a sophomore, but the Presque Isle winger already understands that the game is about a lot more than scoring goals. Not that he and his linemates have had much trouble doing that lately either.
Roy scored two more Saturday afternoon to cap a four-goal weekend for himself, and the Wildcats held off a pesky Capital Region squad by a 5-3 count in Class B North boys hockey at the Bonnefond Ice Arena. It was the third straight win for Presque Isle (5-2-0) and the second in less than 24 hours after beating Waterville/Winslow on Friday night at home.
“You can’t rely on the first line to do everything. We’ve got to play well behind them,” said Roy, whose line accounted for six goals in the two wins. “We want to go out there and our big thing is not to get scored on, so we want to produce some offense to go along with that.”
Senior Coleman Watson scored a pair of goals for Capital Region (1-3-0), the Maranacook/Winthrop/Madison/Lawrence/Spruce Mountain co-op. Watson’s first goal in the second period tied the game at 2-2, and his shorthanded strike early in the third pulled the Hawks to within a goal. Junior goalie Thomas Thornton made 30 saves.
While finding consistent effort and continuity has been a struggle for the Hawks, Presque Isle suffers no such ills. The team’s top line of Gage Letourneau, Connor Demerchant and Colby Carlisle is the same trio which drove the team to the regional semifinals last season, and the same line that draws plenty of attention from opposing teams this winter. That’s why Roy’s line, centered by Quinn Demerchant and flanked by Colby Bonville, is so critical to Presque Isle’s fortunes.
“It makes other teams have to decide who they’re going to cover and what they’re going to do,” Presque Isle head coach Carl Flynn said. “I’m playing my defense randomly and equally, and I can because the second line is holding its own. It’s not getting scored on, and now they’re scoring, too. That’s huge.”
“We’re just going to keep going and play our game,” said Roy, whose line accounted for two of the Wildcats’ five goals Saturday. “Hopefully, we come out with wins. We’re starting to pick it up.”
Each time Capital Region found traction, the Wildcats responded.
Presque Isle was in danger of letting a dominant first period slip away after Cam Jordan handed Capital Region a 1-0 lead at the midpoint of the frame, on the Hawks’ first shot of the afternoon. But the Wildcats responded with two goals 16 seconds apart, first with Demerchant tying things up before Roy put them on top 2-1.
The teams traded early second-period goals, and Carlisle gave Presque Isle a 4-2 lead with his power play goal at 11:57.
“I think we played well for 41 of the 45 minutes,” Capital Region coach Jack Rioux said. “Those two blocks of two minutes where we started watching them instead of pressuring them, that’s when they scored. You can’t let them drive the play. They’re too good to not pressure them.”
The Hawks were handed a golden opportunity to cut into the two-goal deficit early in the third period. A full two-minute 5-on-3 advantage vanished when Hawk defenseman Evan Gourley was called for tripping in the offensive zone and the rest of a five-minute major to Quinn Demerchant was erased when Patrick Prescott took an interference penalty.
Watson scored shorthanded to make it 4-3, but the Hawks’ momentum was lost. Roy sealed the Presque Isle victory with 4:14 remaining.
“We were fortunate those guys took a couple penalties to negate the power play and give us a chance to get back into it,” Flynn said.
“I’d love to use the excuse that they’re young, but they’re of a mindset where it’s hard to get them to play smarter,” Rioux said. “Every game we’ve played, we’ve had penalty trouble.”
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