Ice ’Cats collect big weekend sweep
By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
The Presque Isle Wildcats had won consecutive hockey games only once all season heading into their back-to-back road contests this past weekend, but there were able to pull it off again with the recent victories over Old Town/Orono and Waterville.
The win over Old Town/Orono Friday was expected, but beating the Panthers the following morning at Colby College required overtime before being decided.
Presque Isle was beaten by Waterville at home eight days earlier, 2-1, and the Panthers went into Saturday’s game as the No. 2 team in Eastern Maine Class B, but the Wildcats were up for the challenge and pulled off the 4-3 triumph.
Tyler Seeley scored an unassisted goal 3:07 into overtime to complete the hat trick and give PI the win. He had tied the game at 1-1 off assists by Cooper Madore and Andrew Michaud in the first period and garnered his second goal, which gave his team a 3-2 lead at the time, early in the third off assists by Alex Michaud and Andrew Michaud.
The other Wildcat goal came from Andrew Michaud. Madore and Alex Michaud had the assists.
Jillian Flynn made 30 saves on 33 shots to record the win in goal.
“This was a huge victory,” coach Carl Flynn said. “They were worth a lot of points. Even though we lost to them the week before, I knew we could beat them.”
Against Old Town/Orono, Seeley, Alex Michaud, Dan Boucher and Andrew Michaud all had second-period goals to wipe out a 1-0 deficit and lead the Wildcats to a 5-3 victory over the Black Bears at Alfond Arena on the University of Maine at Orono campus.
Trevor Levesque added a third-period goal and Madore finished with two assists for the Wildcats. Flynn and Oliver Gerrish split the goal-tending chores and combined for 27 saves.
“It was a sloppy game and we got by some early penalty trouble but we righted the ship after the first intermission,” said the coach.
Entering play Monday, the Wildcats were in third place in the Heal Point rankings, behind only Messalonskee of Oakland and Waterville. A top-six finish will get PI into the upcoming playoffs.
