Biddeford 6
Bonny Eagle 1
Bonny Eagle’s hockey team needed a couple of breaks and they certainly needed a few more goals as Biddefod skated to a 6-1 win on Tuesday evening in West A quarterfinal action.
The Tigers got off to a slow start against the Scots before Tyler Fleurent scored two goals in 14 seconds midway through the first period to give Biddeford all the goals they would need. The Tigers recorded three more goals in the second period to put the game away. Cam Madore, Shawn Grover and Nick Reny were the scorers. Tyler Albert scored for Biddeford in the third period to make it 6-0.
The Scots’ Adam Childs got his team on the board and broke the shutout with just over five minutes to play in regulation.
“The game was about what I thought it would be,” Petterson said. “There were a few times I was hoping we would get bounces of the puck but we didn’t. The game was about what I expected. I knew they’d be fast and I knew it would be a sprint up and down game all night. I think the kids hung with them well. I watched my goalie to see if they got any cheap goals and they weren’t. Biddeford had to work for everything they got.”
Bonny Eagle goalie Cody Bradway recorded 23 saves and kept the Scots in the game most of the night. The Scots just weren’t able to get enough shots past Biddeford goalies Tony Dube and Cody Petit.
“I thought certainly they had that first line and second line that are very tough,” said Biddeford coach Jamie Gagnon. “I think the game was a tough game for us.”
Not that long ago a season like this was only a pipe dream for the Bonny Eagle hockey team. Not that long ago the program suffered multiple winless seasons in a row. That’s why this year’s team was so special.
Last year the Scots made the playoffs for the first time ever, but were eliminated in the first round. This year’s squad racked up 14 wins in the regular season and they picked up the program’s first playoff victrory with a 5-2 win over Westbrook last week. But on Tuesday night, the run ended in Biddeford with the 6-1 loss to the Tigers.
“I was coaching middle school about six years ago and I saw where these kids were at,” said Scots coach David Petterson. “I know how the school felt about it and even how some of the community around felt about it. It wasn’t a good place. I’m really happy with where we are now and what people think of the team and what the kids think. A few years ago we never made the playoffs.”
The Scots ran roughshod over most of their opponents during the regular season averaging just over seven goals per game. In the late 90s, the team would routinely give up 50 or 60 shots in a game and be on the losing end of a 12-0 score. This year’s skaters had nine games where they scored 10 or more goals.
Early in the year, senior forward Nate Jewell recorded his 100th career point in a 10-1 win over Sanford. Later in the season, sophomore Travis Dunn recorded his 100th career point in an 11-4 win over South Portland. Jewell has been with the varsity team for four years and remembers those disappointing seasons.
“My freshman year we started out 2-14,” he said. “We beat the worst team in the league twice. Then Coach Pettersen came and Coach Morse came and we just keep getting more productive and more productive. We got more wins and gained confidence. We were top eight in the league. That’s pretty good.”
The seniors on the Bonny Eagle hockey team can hold their heads high knowing they helped to turn what was a struggling program into one of the top seven teams in the region.
“14-5 isn’t bad,” Jewell said. “Every game we played was competitive even with the top tier teams. This game we just couldn’t put the puck in the net. We hung with them in the first period and we had our chances. It could have been 2-2 or 3-2. Either way it was a good game.”
Next season the Scots will need to find someone to replace Bradway, Jewell, Alyssa Dunn and some of the other seniors who were a big part of this program’s turnaround. Travis Dunn may be one of those players.
“It’s going to be hard to replace a senior goalie,” Petterson said. “We have seven seniors total. One is our goalie and one’s almost a 50-goal scorer this year. That’s hard to replace. We’ve got a good seven or nine kids coming in from middle school; that’s a nice sign. We still have a couple here who can put the puck in the net. Travis is still only a sophomore and we have some good kids coming up beside him. Other than one defenseman we have all of them coming back. Alyssa is a senior, but we have the rest of our defense back. It’s going to be tough getting used to not having those seniors around, but I think we’re in pretty good shape going into next year.
“These kids have come a tremendous distance, not just in the skill level but in the feeling among the kids and among the whole program,” said Petterson. “They have changed the way the school feels about them and the pride they have in the program.”
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