Wildcats skate to victory in Black Hawks home opener

HOULTON, Maine — The visiting Presque Isle hockey squad broke open what was otherwise a close contest with the Houlton-Hodgdon-Southern Aroostook Black Hawks Tuesday evening at the Millar Civic Center.

 Presque Isle (2-3) scored six goals in the third period to skate away with a 7-0 victory over the Black Hawks (0-5). Both of the Wildcats’ victories have been over the Black Hawks.

The game was significant for a pair of Wildcat skaters as sophomore Owen McKinnon scored the first goal of his high school career and also tallied an assist on the night, while Presque Isle goalie Connor Bell earned his first shutout in net.

Ethan Carlisle opened the scoring for Presque Isle at the 7:01 mark in the first period with assists from McKinnon and Breygan Mahan. That goal proved to be the only scoring in the first two periods of action as the two teams played strong defense.

The Wildcats’ scoring explosion came in the third period as the team scored early and often, including a pair of goals from Dawson Kinney and Garett LeTourneau, along with solo goals from McKinnon and Ethan Shaw.

Black Hawk goalie Dawson Cole stopped 29 of 36 shots.

“We played a strong two periods of hockey playing Presque Isle tough,” Houlton coach Karl Enroth said. “Our goalie Dawson Cole was playing great, and we had some great scoring opportunities to score, credit to their goalie Connor Bell for making some key saves.”

 

He added the team had a few undisciplined misconduct penalties and several four-minute roughing penalties at the end of the second period, which made it difficult to generate any momentum going into the third period.

 

“Presque Isle took advantage of the situation and scored six goals in the third period in what was a competitive contest for most of the game,” he said.