AUBURN — Edward Little kept the puck away from Mt. Ararat/Lisbon/Morse, only allowing five shots in a 3-0 boys hockey victory over the Eagles at Norway Savings Bank Arena on Wednesday.
Jack Keefe scored two goals and goalie Gage Ducharme earned the shutout for the Red Eddies, who wrap up the regular season with a Class A-best 16-2 record.
“Jack Keefe said (after the game), ‘We played as a team today,” Edward Little coach Norm Gagne said. “It certainly showed in moving the puck, and we played good (defense) in our zone. Our penalty killing, we have been working hard on it and we have gotten better at that.”
The Red Eddies killed all four of their penalties. They went 1-for-5 on the man advantage.
Edward Little was coming off a 2-1 loss to Brunswick on Monday.
The Eagles didn’t have their legs and couldn’t recover as the game went along.
“The kids stayed working hard. I can’t complain about that,” Eagles’ coach AJ Kavanaugh said. “They didn’t get down on themselves and the score was respectable. Sean (Moore) played great (in net). Going forward, he will keep us in every game we play.”
The Red Eddies had the puck in the offensive zone for most of the first period. Moore, the Eagles’ goalie, kept the game scoreless for most of the period.
Keefe broke the 0-0 deadlock with a goal in the final two minutes of the first period, with linemates Wesley Clements and Aiden Gonzalez setting up the power-play goal.
Keefe said second chances are important when facing Moore (32 saves).
“He makes the first save 95 percent of the time,” Keefe said. “Rebounds, you have to get in front of them and you have to make him move.”
Gagne was pleased with the 35 shots the Red Eddies had on goal.
“We made some good plays; we didn’t score on all of them, but we got a lot of pucks on net,” Gagne said. “That’s what we need to do is get pucks on net.”
Tate Morse scored nearly four minutes into the second period to extend Edward Little’s lead to 2-0.
The Eagles (6-12) had a chance to get back in the game in the final five minutes of the second when the Red Eddies took three minors.
Mt. Ararat/Lisbon/Morse mustered two shots on those three power-play chances.
“You think three-plus minutes of 5-on-3, you’d think we could generate some offense,” AJ Kavanaugh said. “It boiled over frustration-wise (afterward).”
Keefe scored his second goal of the game when defenseman Brody Keefe cleared the puck out of the defensive zone. Jack Keefe chased the puck down in the neutral zone and on a breakaway ripped a shot into the net from the top of the right offensive circle with 11 seconds left in the second period.
The Eagles took four minor penalties in the third period. The Red Eddies couldn’t capitalize on the chances.
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