Jason Barden was feeling good before Saturday’s game against Falmouth. The day had started with a team breakfast consisting of chocolate chip pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon and French toast. Then there was some Olympic hockey watching with his teammates.

Finally, at around 6:30, the Scarborough goalie checked off the last item on his to-do list when he sweated through his pre-game warm-up routine.

Make that the second-to-last item, actually. Barden, a senior, saved the best for last. All the prep work paid off as he made 20 saves in a 2-0 win over Falmouth at USM.

“We came in here in a little slump. We hadn’t won in the last two games. We lost to Cheverus and got blown out,” said Barden, who followed up Saturday’s performance with 18 saves in Monday’s 6-1 win over Orono. “We needed a big one to get us ahead because we looked at the standings before this game and we’re barely hanging on. So we needed a big win to pull away. We came out fast today and played good defense.”

So good, in fact, that Barden didn’t see much action in the first period. He faced just four shots and stopped them all. Things started to heat up in the second, though.

Seventeen seconds in, Falmouth’s Travis Jordan almost caught Barden off-guard with a quick snapshot from the slot.

Midway through the period, James Tolan and Mike Chase broke in two-on-one. Tolan kept the puck and put a shot on that Barden handled easily. A minute later, Barden flopped from post to post as Chase, Nick Galli and Tim Cassidy poked at a loose puck.

Down at the other end of the ice, Falmouth’s C.J. Fortier was putting the pressure on Barden by matching him save for save. His best save of the period came 12:15 in when Scarborough freshman Derek Army cut to the left side of the net and tried to jam the puck inside the post. Fortier slid over to make the save.

Less than a minute later, he wasn’t so lucky.

With Jordan off for interference, Scarborough set up in the offensive zone and worked the puck up, down and around. Eventually, junior defenseman Steve Cook blasted a slapper from the left point. The puck missed the net, but took a fortuitous bounce off the back boards to Blake Lucier at the right post. Before Fortier could get back into position, Lucier had deposited the rebound into the open net.

“It was a great playoff-type hockey game,” said Falmouth coach Scott Rousseau. “They got a tough break on that bounce off the back of the boards. That happens, and I thought we had terrific chances in the third period and could’ve put it in.”

Chances, yes; goals, no. By the time the third had rolled around, Barden had found his rhythm.

“After the first period I only had four shots, so I was a little lazy back there because they were just like slapshots from the blue line,” he said. “Once the second period came they started coming in a lot closer and I had a lot more difficult shots to stop. Then I came into the third period and it was just like they were all beach balls from there.”

Six minutes into the period, Barden made a glove save on Cassidy. Then, at the 11:30-mark, Falmouth’s Sam Lundquist attempted a wrap-around, but again Barden was there.

The biggest save of the night, though, came in the game’s final two minutes, when the Red Storm killed off a penalty. Jordan followed up a rebound with Barden down and out.

“I saw the slap shot from the blue line and then I didn’t really see it through the screen, but it hit the toe of my pad and kicked out,” said Barden. “And then Travis Jordan – he was right there – and I just threw my leg out there hoping to get it, hoping he’d shoot it on the ice and I got it.”

Mike Dakers added an empty-netter with 19 seconds to go in the game.

“We needed to get it going for the playoffs and start playing as a team again instead of as individuals,” said senior captain Bill McHugh. “I thought we played a very good team game, and everyone was hustling.”

And his take on the goalkeeping: “It’s nice to know that he’s back there. Especially going in the playoffs, a hot goaltender is a big thing going into the playoffs.”

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