Bangor’s Ben Brook and Edward Little’s Ben Cassidy push towards the puck during Wednesday night’s game in Auburn. (Sun Journal photo by Andree Kehn)
AUBURN — The Bangor Rams made sure there wasn’t a buzzer-beater this time.
After losing in the final seconds nearly two weeks ago in Bangor, the Rams defeated the Edward Little Red Eddies 5-2 at the Norway Savings Bank Arena on Wednesday.
“With them winning the last game with five seconds left, it made us want to win this game, we didn’t want to lose again,” Bangor forward Zach Cowperthwaite said. “We’ve been playing really good, practicing really hard. We had good opportunities in this game and we took advantage of it.”
After a slow start, the Red Eddies got going midway through the first period, and a Cowperthwaite tripping penalty put EL on the power play 7:47 into the game.
It looked like Bangor (11-2) would be the team to take advantage as they had a short-handed breakaway with 12 seconds remaining in EL’s man advantage, but Red Eddies goaltender Devon D’Auteuil shut it down.
The Red Eddies (9-6) then won the defensive-zone faceoff, and Gage Doucette dished the puck to Gunnar Winslow in the neutral zone. Winslow entered the offensive zone and let go a seemingly innocuous shot. It appeared that Bangor goaltender Jacob Henry was going to glove the puck for an easy save, but the shot dipped at the last second and got past Henry.
The goal came right before the power play expired at the 9:47 mark.
The Red Eddies couldn’t capitalize on other opportunities they had in the opening frame.
“We had opportunities in the last part of the first period,” EL coach Norm Gagne said. “I also thought on the power play we had some good opportunities. When we came out for the second period, we were not focused and we weren’t ready to play the second period.”
Gagne said that Red Eddies’ downfall Wednesday was not doing the little things like winning faceoffs, and that they were one step behind Bangor.
The Rams dominated the second period. It started with a power play goal after EL’s Logan Alexander went to the box for a cross check. Nick Boudreau scored an unassisted marker at the 2:48 mark of the middle frame.
Bangor went 1-for-3 on the power play, while EL was 1-for-2.
“The second period was huge for us,” Bangor coach Quinn Paradis said. “I thought we played the first five minutes of the first period really well. We got a little lackadaisical the second part of the first period. We had that soft goal where it was dumped in. It’s uncharacteristic of Jacob to have that go in.
“I thought we responded well. It’s been a tough road trip for us — it’s three of four south of Lewiston. We reacted well in the second period, that’s what we are looking for.”
Cowperthwaite found himself back in the box again, but this time he stepped out of the sin bin to join a 2-on-1 rush to make it 3-on-1 in the neutral zone. Daniel McCarthy fed him the puck and he fired it past D’Auteuil at the 5:12 mark.
Cowperthwaite stretched the lead to 3-1 a little more than three minutes later when his shot one-hopped past D’Auteuil.
“I wanted to score because it was the first (two) penalties I have taken this year,” Cowperthwaite said. “They scored on one of my penalties, so I knew I wanted to put in a goal. (The second) goal helped us out even more.”
Josh Sherwood put the Rams up 4-1 with 5:27 remaining in the second period.
Boudreau scored his second goal of the contest just before the three-minute mark of the third period.
Gagne said Boudreau was dominant Wednesday.
“He was quick and he made some good plays,” Gagne said. “We weren’t playing the body and he knew it. I don’t care who you are as a player, if you know you aren’t going to get hit, you are going to have a good time.”
Ben Cassidy scored late in the third period on a breakaway to score the Red Eddies second goal.
Henry had made 19 saves in the game. D’Auteuil made 15 saves in two periods of action before being relieved by Gavin Toussaint as Gagne tried to look for a spark for the third period. Toussaint made two saves in the third.
Edward Little’s Ben Cassidy takes control of the puck after Bangor’s Ben Brook loses control during Wednesday night’s game in Auburn. (Sun Journal photo by Andree Kehn)
Bangor’s Zachary Cowperthwaite and Edward Little’s Aaron Perkins chase down the puck during Wednesday night’s game in Auburn. (Sun Journal photo by Andree Kehn)
Edward Little’s Ben Cassidy and Bangor’s Hunter Neale race to gain control of the puck during Wednesday night’s game in Auburn. (Sun Journal photo by Andree Kehn)
Bangor’s Nick Boudreau keeps his eye on teh puck as Edward Little’s Logan Alexander falls to the ice during Wednesday night’s game in Auburn. (Sun Journal photo by Andree Kehn)
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