WINSLOW, Maine – The Presque Isle varsity hockey team went into Saturday night’s Eastern Maine semifinal a decided underdog against the no. 1 seeded Orono Red Riots, and that just may have worked in their favor.
“I told them going into the game that we’re the underdogs,” said head coach Dr. Carl Flynn after the 4-2 win. “Just making it this far was more than we’d planned at the beginning of the season, so we had nothing to be stressed or worried about. I told them to just go out and enjoy the day.”
The Wildcats surely enjoyed getting on the board first when Dylan Collins picked up a turnover in the neutral zone and headed up the ice by himself. He slipped a desperation check at the blue line, regained his balance and saw only goal from there.
As he got back on his feet, Collins sent a weak shot on the net which caught Orono goalie Jared Bussell off guard. Bussell went for the catch but mistimed the slow shot and gave Presque Isle the early 1-0 lead 6:06 into the game.
Orono answered five minutes later as Tony Raymond picked up a rebound off a Chris McCannon shot.
The Wildcats didn’t let down and got the go-ahead with nine seconds left in the first.
Collins again picked up the puck in the neutral zone and sent a pass ahead to freshman forward Brennen Shaw. Shaw took a shot low and to the left which was kicked out by the Orono goalie. Sean Flanagin grabbed the rebound on the right side and buried a snap shot on a wide open net.
Presque Isle would never relinquish the lead.
“That lead was huge,” Flynn said. “We expected Orono to come out somewhat flat and figured the team we saw in the second period would be different than what we saw in the first.”
The Wildcats came out firing and added two goals within a minute and a half of each other beginning at the 9:12 mark.
What turned out to be the winning goal, came from Shaw. Presque Isle got the puck into Orono’s end and sent several shots on goal before netting the puck.
“It was a classic garbage goal,” Flynn said. “It was a scrum around their net and we beat the puck around for probably 30 seconds before Brennen finally got a stick on it.”
Collins and Flanagin picked up the assists.
Orono lashed out in frustration and picked up a slashing penalty on the goal giving the Wildcats a powerplay, and the team was ready.
Parker Hovey picked up the puck in Presque Isle’s defensive end and got it out to Greg Cyr at the Presque Isle blue line. He sent a pass up to Ben McPherson on the Red Riot blue line. McPherson took a couple steps in before converting a laser wrist shot under the crossbar.
The goal turned out to be Presque Isle’s final of the game as they went into a defensive stance for the third period.
After tying once and losing once to the Red Riots, the difference turned out to be end-of-the-season preparation for the Wildcats according to their coach.
“The second game [against Orono] I matched my third line with their first line just to see how it would work. That didn’t work out too well. They dismantled us on the powerplay,” Flynn said. “This time I went with my top two lines and the third occasionally. We also had a new penalty kill, which we used effectively to block their powerplay and keep up the intensity.”
Orono added their final goal late in the second on a shot by Sean Babin off a pass from Raymond. The Red Riots outshot Presque Isle 16-3 in the third period, but Presque Isle goalie Ethan Hill proved to be on top of his game. The Presque Isle defense did their part protecting the middle.
“We changed our strategy [in the third],” Flynn said. “We stayed back on defense and plugged up the middle of the ice so they couldn’t get any quality shots. We agreed to let them take as many outside shots as they wanted. Ethan played phenomenally. He saw the puck well and was able to trap it and glove it.”
Hill made 36 saves on 38 shots for the evening while Bussell stopped 22 of 26 Presque Isle looks.
The Wildcats also attribute conditioning to their win and hope to tap their additional speed against Brewer.
“When we lost to Brewer 10-3 in our [17th] game of the season [on Feb. 10], Ben came to me and said ‘We can’t skate with these teams. We’re not in good enough shape,’” Flynn said. “In the last three weeks before playoffs we were skating. The guys would come off the ice groaning after practice, but we wanted to be able to skate like Raymond and Babin, and tonight they couldn’t break away from us.”
Still, Presque Isle heads into the Eastern Maine final knowing they’ll have a tough row to hoe against a bigger Brewer team to which they’ve taken two losses this season (6-1 Dec. 30 and 10-3 Feb. 10). However, the Wildcats, who seem to be peaking at this critical time, are hoping for one extra factor in their favor – the zeal of their fans.
“The guys played with a lot of heart Saturday and having a big crowd there and our band helped a lot,” Flynn said. “We had as many or more fans than Orono, and I think we could give our band credit for at least one of our goals in the first period. We’re hoping for as big a crowd Wednesday night.”
Presque Isle plays for the Eastern Maine final tonight against Brewer at Alfond Arena in Orono. Face off is at 7 p.m.
