AUBURN — Megan Lachance is playing some of the best hockey of her high school career in the past month, and is helping solidify the second line for the Edward Little/Leavitt/Poland Red Hornets.

Last month the senior couldn’t explain her improved play. Red Hornets coach Dana Berube gave her a simple explanation after Lachance scored a key goal.

“It was early January, we were playing (Cape Elizabeth/South Portland/Waynflete) when we tied here (at Norway Savings Bank Arena), she came back (to the bench), and she said, ‘I don’t know it is,'” Berube said. “I said, ‘I do. It’s confidence. You are playing with confidence, and you are believing in yourself now.”

Lachance said that goal in a 3-3 tie against the No. 1 girls hockey team in Southern Maine set a new career-high for a single season.

“I just thought it was so cool,” Lachance said of scoring five goals in a season.

Heading into the North regional final against rival Lewiston, Lachance has tallied nine goals and eight assists in 18 games. The second-seeded Red Hornets (11-5-2) and the top-seeded Blue Devils (15-2) face off Wednesday at 5 p.m. at Troubh Arena in Portland.

SCORING A BONUS

Lachance is a winger on the second line with her best friend, Molly Sirois, who has noticed Lachance playing more confidently and making more plays in recent weeks.

“Megan will definitely hold onto the puck more, and she can make better plays because she has more confidence with the puck and she knows where to go with it,” Sirois said.

Sirois said she and Lachance have developed a sixth sense that comes from being so close with each other on and off the ice.

“I can understand what she’s going to do before she does it,” Sirois said. “I can read her as a player, and she definitely can read me the same way.”

Sirois said she knows when Lachance is going to dump the puck to the offensive zone to make a line change, and when Lachance is going to pass it to her. They also work well together at getting the puck out of the defensive zone.

Despite the increased scoring over the past month or so, Lachance doesn’t consider herself an offensive forward, but rather a defensive forward on the line.

“I think my job is to just play defense and stop (opponents) from getting goals,” Lachance said.

While Berube has enjoyed added scoring recently, he has always been impressed with Lachance’s play when she doesn’t have the puck.

“She kept sticking and doing what we have asked her to do,” said Berube, who added that Lachance has improved her stickhandling this season. “Every game, she started popping in a goal and making some really good plays that may not come up on the scoresheet, but they were very important during the game. Whether it was forechecking or her backcheck, she’s making the right plays.”

STUDENT OF THE GAME

Lachance first skated when she was 2 years old, and she began playing youth hockey a few years later.

She had to stop for a while because of a knee injury she suffered while doing track and field that made it difficult to skate.

“I had an injury that made me take off a couple of years and it delayed my (hockey development),” Lachance said. “I think it actually helped because I didn’t peak (at an) young age. I have kept improving for the past couple of years.”

When her knee was healthy and strong enough to skate again, Lachance decided to give hockey another try when she entered high school. She soon learned that she was re-starting from the bottom rung of the ladder.

“I didn’t expect too much; I didn’t make varsity my freshman year,” Lachance said. “So, that was a reality check, but I think it really helped me improve as a player.”

Her knee also kept her out of some junior varsity games her freshman year in 2018-19.

While not on the varsity and not always able to play, Lachance learned a lot that season, particularly about increasing her hockey IQ.

“I learned a lot through (players) that are older than me, like Taylor Callier and Brianna Doucette, they really helped me,” Lachance said. “The coaches really helped a lot, giving me a lot of tips, and I try to absorb every piece of information.”

Lachance said she still has knee pain sometimes, but she is able to play through the pain.

Berube said Lachance’s IQ helped her catch up to the rest of her peers.

“We all deal with that, all the coaches in high school hockey,” Berube said. “The girls that start a little later, those key skills, you have to try to design your practices where everybody is getting that work, even your good players. Your good players can take (those skills) to the next level, but you have girls that just need to work on the fundamentals. She always has good eye contact and she’s a good student. When you got good intelligence, that lends you getting hockey IQ over time.”

Lachance made the varsity team her sophomore year.

“I was so pumped, I was so excited,” Lachance said.

Even with a nagging knee injury, Lachance’s skating ability put her on the second line that season, and her hockey knowledge continued to develop.

“It was a matter of getting her hockey sense and reading, reacting and knowing to go (on the ice)” Berube said.

Berube said Lachance’s development of those skills was accelerated her sophomore season by the Red Hornets’ small-area games — game-like competitive drills that utilize a playing surface that has been reduced in size — during practices.

Lachance became a key part of the Red Hornets’ run to the regional final two years ago.

“She was getting a lot of minutes (her sophomore year) and made some good progress to that point,” Berube said.

Berube said Lachance continued her steady progression last winter, setting her up to be an important, all-around player this season for a team that is again one win away from the state championship game.

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