The excuse was there for the taking, but Cape Elizabeth hockey coach Jason Tremblay wasn’t interested and neither was senior captain Kyle Dancause.
In the five days leading up to Monday night’s clash with Greely, the Capers had just one practice – and that was on a pond. But, still, Tremblay and Dancause refused to blame Monday’s 5-4 overtime loss on the lack of ice time.
“I think they came out hard tonight and they beat us to a lot of loose pucks,” said Tremblay, whose team fell to 11-7 and likely dropped behind both York and Greely in the Heal point standings.
“In the end they beat us to a lot of loose pucks that we weren’t getting to, and we lost a lot of the one-on-one battles all night long. We were lucky to be in it going into overtime at that point.
“It’s the end of the year, and you should be in shape. We’ve been running, we’ve been doing the little things, so it’s no excuse.”
Dancause agreed and expanded on his coach’s comments.
“You should only see that in the first period with the legs being a little dead,” he said. “They really weren’t, I don’t think.”
Nope.
If anything, the Capers outplayed the Rangers in the early going. They jumped out to a 1-0 lead 2:16 into the first on a goal by senior forward Mike Kertes.
Dancause fed a streaking Kertes from the right wing boards in the offensive zone. He carried the puck through the slot and then beat Greely goalie Billy Bolduc with a perfectly-placed shot just inside the right post.
The lead held up until the 11:52 mark.
The Capers killed off one Greely two-man advantage in the first – with Tom Rich and Zack Juliano both in the box – but they didn’t have enough left in the tank to get them through another. So, when Ross Negele replaced Rich after an interference call, the Rangers pounced.
Junior forward Harrison Sheldon beat Cape goalie Ryan Hatch with a wrister from the slot to tie things at one.
Tremblay wasn’t as upset with the penalties as he was with the lack of hustle.
“We play physical,” he said. “We’re going to get a couple extra calls here and there because of our game, but we’re not going to stop. We’re going to keep working.”
Juliano and Negele redeemed themselves 1:46 into the second by connecting for the go-ahead goal.
Negele took a shot from the left point and Juliano re-directed it past Bolduc. Six minutes later, Dancause made it 3-1 when he tipped home a long, blue-line-to-right-post feed from linemate Drake Livada.
By the end of the period, Greely had things knotted up once again. Tyler King crashed into the slot to knock a rebound past Hatch 8:41 in, and Kevin Hart took advantage of a defensive zone turnover during a power play with 49 seconds to go.
“They’re a very good hockey team year in and year out, and we knew it was going to take a really strong, consistent effort tonight to have a chance to win,” said Greely coach Barry Mothes. “I thought our guys showed a lot of character battling back three different times.”
The final game-tying tally came midway through the third period.
Cape had taken the lead 4:09 in on a goal by Rich. He followed up a Griffin Rockwell shot from the point and beat Bolduc from the slot.
Two and a half minutes later, sophomore Leland Copenhagen re-directed a seemingly harmless Brad Allen wrister past Hatch.
The senior goalie set the tone for OT when he shut down Sam Sheldon on a breakaway attempt as the buzzer sounded. But the Capers were unable to carry the momentum into the extra frame.
The gamewinner came 4:22 in. Copenhagen carried the puck into the Cape zone from his own blue line, beat a pair of defenders and then lifted a wrister over Hatch’s glove hand and under the crossbar.
“(We told them), ‘We did not work hard tonight, guys. We didn’t come to play. Where’s the intensity?'” said Tremblay. “They know that they’ve got to come every night, ready to play, especially in our league, in our division.
“We’ve got two games left. Like I said, ‘Pick up your head. You’ve been playing great lately. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. You came out flat tonight, and it’s something to learn from.'”
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