AUBURN — Bangor/Narraguagus and Edward Little kept each other at bay, for the most part, limiting each other’s shots on goal during Wednesday’s Class A boys hockey matchup.
The Rams capitalized on the opportunities they had and earned a 5-2 victory over the Red Eddies at Norway Savings Bank Arena.
Bangor had 19 shots in the contest and Edward Little had 12.
“Our shot attempts were a lot higher than our shots on net,” Bangor coach Quinn Paradis said. “We missed quite of few, and we had some good zone time and possession — which shows.”
Michael Moscone led the Rams (5-1) with three goals.
The Red Eddies, according to coach Norm Gagne, need to be more sharp with the puck.
“We can’t get out of our own end if we can’t handle the puck,” Gagne said. “That’s the frustrating thing. We are bobbling the puck, and when we do make a good pass, we can’t handle the pass. It’s just little things.”
Gagne said he liked the way the Red Eddies (1-5) played in their final two games of the St. Dominic Christmas Classic last week, when their performances against a pair of Rhode Island foes — a 3-2 win over Ponaganest and a 3-2 overtime loss to Smithfield — made it seem like the Eddies had turned a corner after their slow start.
Jackson Guimond got the Rams on the board early in the first period of Wednesday’s game when he straddled the offensive blue line, found a shooting lane, and fired the puck past Edward Little goalie Camren Dufour. Zachary Lindquist had the assist.
“That gave us the momentum. We came out a little flat, I thought — long bus ride during the day, I didn’t know what to expect after a holiday vacation,” Paradis said. “That one went in and that gave the boost we needed to get going.”
Gagne said that while the Red Eddies kept Bangor’s shots to a minimum, they continued to hurt themselves with unforced mistakes.
After Guimond’s goal, Edward Little curtailed Bangor’s offensive pressure until the final minutes of the first period, while also taking shots on Rams netminder Cole Fernald at the other end of the ice.
There was a minute-long stretch in which Fernald (10 saves) lost his stick behind the Bangor net, but the Eddies didn’t get a quality shot on goal.
In the final two minutes of the first, Moscone grabbed a rebound after a Dufour save in the slot and fired the puck into the net to push Bangor’s lead to 2-0.
Moscone said late-period goal have been providing the Rams an edge lately.
“It was really big. We did it the last game against Hampden,” Moscone said. “Giving them that last push before getting into the locker room. I think really brings them down and allows us to throw them off the next period.”
Edward Little’s first goal came early the second period when forward Peyton Dyer sent the puck to Andrew Clements, who crashed from the high slot and chipped the puck over Fernald’s shoulder.
“That really got us going. I thought we were going to get right back in it,” Gagne said of Clements’ goal. “Again, too many mistakes — we need to cut down on the mistakes. We aren’t as bad as the score is. I know that these young kids can play — I know they can play, and they know they can play.”
Ty Walker restored the two-goal lead when Bangor was on a power play. Walker skated towards the crease, deked and slid the puck past Dufour (14 saves) five minutes into the middle frame.
“He made a chip over the guy’s stick, made a move, and came in — it’s one of the things you don’t want him to do all the time, but it was successful this time,” Paradis said of Walker’s goal.
Bangor added another power-play goal late in the second when Moscone banked the puck off of Dufour’s pads and into the net. Marc-Andre Perron had the helper.
Moscone added another goal near the crease in the final seconds of the second.
“I knew my teammates would find me on the back door,” Moscone said of his two second-period goals. “I knew I had to be in the right place to finish.”
Clements scored the only goal of the third period when he redirected a Ben Poulin shot on an Edward Little power play in the final two minutes of the game.
The Rams were 2 of 4 on the man advantage, while the Red Eddies went 1 for 3.
Gagne said that Edward Little’s power play struggled to get into the offensive end.
“We need to play a more physical game, and we really need to work on handling the puck under pressure,” Gagne said. “That’s what we will do. We will work on breakouts; if we can break out, I think, that we will be the team we want to be.”
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