AUBURN — Edward Little has had slow starts in the preseason and the regular season opener against Bangor on Saturday. The trend continued Wednesday, when Thornton Academy jumped out to an early lead with two quick goals en route to a 5-1 boys hockey victory at Norway Savings Bank Arena.
“We haven’t started well the last three games, and that’s one of the things I was hoping we were going to shake off and come out with a better attitude and be ready,” Red Eddies coach Norm Gagne said. “We haven’t been ready to play, and we did it again tonight. I thought the second period we started to play a little bit better.”
The Red Eddies did defeat Bangor 6-4 on Saturday after falling behind 1-0 in the first two minutes of the game.
Gagne said that while the season is still young, he expects the team to improve soon.
Thornton Academy coach Jamie Gagnon said his players played well Wednesday in what was a rematch of last year’s Class A state semifinal, which the Golden Trojans won 2-1.
“Our goal was to consistently provide the effort all night long we needed to get better by the time we left here,” Gagnon said. “I thought it was a pretty good effort.”
Forwards Jacob Marcotte and Kyle Lesieur each had a goal and two assists for the Golden Trojans.
“It’s a really big win,” Marcotte said. “We came out here underdogs, almost, even though we won last year. It’s kind of good to put everybody who was doubting us in their place. …We are only going to get better.”
Golden Trojans (2-0) defenseman Lucas Hubbard’s shot from the slot gave Thornton 1-0 two minutes into the game.
Edward Little (1-1) responded 39 seconds later when Campbell Cassiidy crashed Thornton goalie Drew Johnson’s crease. Johnson stopped Cassidy’s first attempt at jamming the puck into the goal but not the second.
The game remained 1-1 for only 55 seconds. Thornton forward Evan Beaudette’s shot from the high slot beat Edward Little goalie Camren Dufour cleanly for a 2-1 lead.
Gagnon said the plan was to get the puck deep into the offensive zone, so a fresh batch of forwards could chase it down.
“He was at the end of his shift, too, and we were trying to get that puck deep,” Gagnon said of Beaudette. “Ultimately, we get lucky and it goes in.”
Things settled down for the rest of the first period.
Thornton Academy had the game’s first two power plays in the second period but didn’t convert either into a goal.
Edward Little had a few chances in the middle frame, but Gavin Levesque’s slap shot from the blue line rang the post and Cassidy had a shot go wide in the final minute of the period.
“I thought the kids played really well in that period, and our goalie, Camren, made some big stops for us,” Gagne said. “I told him after the second period, ‘When we made mistakes, you came up big for us.’ We knew we were in the game.”
Dufour stopped 18 shots in the loss, while Johnson made 14 saves.
Thornton started the third period like the first, scoring early. Marcotte had a shot on Dufour and Gavin Pellerin put home the puck on a rebound 18 seconds into the period for a 3-1 lead. Lesieur had the secondary assist.
“That quick goal in the third really hurt; that was the beginning of the end, so to speak,” Gagne said
The same Thornton trio was involved in the next goal. Pellerin fed Marcotte with a pass to the backdoor, and Marcotte ripped a shot for a 4-1 lead. Again, Lesieur had the secondary assist.
Marcotte said the Trojans work on the play a lot.
“All the time, we are always moving the puck around on 3-on-1s, 3-on-2s to prepare for the game,” Marcotte said. “It worked out tonight.”
Shane Bergeron scored Thornton’s fifth goal in the final minute for a 5-1 lead.
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