Blake Springer, left, of the Leavitt/Poland/Oak Hill/Gray-New Gloucester Kings battles for the puck with Alex O’Connor of Gorham during the first period in Auburn on Tuesday. (Sun Journal photo by Daryn Slover) (Sun Journal photo by Daryn Slov
AUBURN — Gorham scored three goals during a five-minute power play, and that was enough to beat Leavitt/Gray-New Gloucester/Oak Hill/Poland 4-2 in a Class B South boys hockey quarterfinal Tuesday night.
Tanner Garand, Aiden Owens and Aiden Enck all scored during the extended man-advantage, which turned a 1-1 game into a 4-1 Rams lead that they held onto at Norway Savings Bank Arena.
No. 5 Gorham next plays No. 1 Greely in the regional semifinals.
The fourth-seeded Kings (11-7-1) opened the scoring nine minutes into the game when RSpencer Berube set up Reese Collins off a faceoff, but the Rams (11-8) responded with a Tyler Weeks goal assisted by Joey Curesky exactly two minutes later.
“You know, I think certainly with the history from the last game that we played against them (a 3-1 Gorham loss) it could have been easy for us to get down,” Gorham coach Jon Portwine said. “We know how hard these guys are to beat defensively, but scoring a goal so quickly kind of picked us back up. So that was a huge point.”
The Rams went on their long power play less than two minutes into the second. It took Garand 34 seconds to score the first goal.
“We’ve struggled on the power play all season, but we did a good job tonight,” Portwine said. “And it was just like we drew it up. Certainly, the first goal was exactly how we drew it up in practice, and all of those frustrating hours that we’ve spent in practice working on the power play I think paid off tonight.”
Owens had an assist on the goal (as did Trevor Gray), then scored his goal unassisted at the 3:30 mark. Enck scored from Nolan Gava and Alex O’Connor with 15 seconds left on the five-minute power play.
“That was the absolute turning point,” Kings coach Joe Hutchinson said. “You know, 5-on-5 I thought we were the better team, but that right there really took the wind out of our sails.”
The Kings had a chance to crawl back with nearly 90 seconds of a 5-on-3 power play at the end of the second and beginning of the third, but Gorham freshman goalie Caleb Waterman and the Rams defense held strong.
“We were trying to get it in the umbrella,” Hutchinson said. “We didn’t move it enough to get a better shot. We tried to force it a few times. We were just trying to get an odd-man situation in front, create a rebound.”
“You know, whenever you can pull off a 5-on-3 kill for I think it was over a minute, that creates momentum, and it really boosts the guys up. And I think it did in this case,” Portwine said. “You know, they did a great job keeping the puck to the outside. (Waterman) made a few good saves, and that’s all it took.”
Aiden Gonzalez scored from Austin Taylor and Trent Vaillancourt midway through the third period to get the Kings within two, giving the hosts some life.
“We were all over them. That third period was all us, I think,” Hutchinson said. “We just needed another bounce. One more bounce would have made it nice and tight, and then who knows what would have happened.”
Instead, Waterman made save after save down the stretch, including a couple right on the goal line. He finished with 26 saves.
“You know, there have been a few games where he hasn’t been at his best, but tonight he was,” Portwine said.
Xavier Michaud made 27 saves for the Kings.
Blake Springer, left, of the Leavitt/Poland/Oak Hill/Gray-New Gloucester Kings battles for the puck with Alex O’Connor of Gorham during the first period in Auburn on Tuesday. (Sun Journal photo by Daryn Slover)
Tyler Weeks of Gorham High School reacts after he scored a first period goal to tie the game 1-1 against the Leavitt/Poland/Oak Hill/Gray-New Gloucester Kings in Auburn on Tuesday. (Sun Journal photo by Daryn Slover)
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