Last weekend was quite a sports weekend for Cape Elizabeth High School.
On Friday night, the Capers boys basketball team fell just short of the Class B state championship, losing to Camden Hills at the Cumberland County Civic Center.
The news was better on Saturday night however, as the Capers got a pair of goals from senior captain Sean Eubanks to top Leavitt 4-1 in the semifinals of the Class B hockey tournament at the Portland Ice Arena.
The win set the Capers up in the Western regional final against rival Greely at the Colisee in Lewiston on Wednesday night (the game was played after the Current’s deadline).
The game marked the fourth time the Rangers and Capers faced off this season. Greely won the two regular season meetings, 5-4 on Jan. 5 and 5-1 on Feb. 7. The Capers topped the Rangers in the finals of the exhibition Fix Cup tournament 3-1 on Feb. 2.
Against the Hornets Saturday night, the Capers got on the board first at 3:52 of the second period when Eubanks took the puck behind the Leavitt net. As he was skating behind the goal, Eubanks fired a perfect pass to junior forward Sam St. Germain, who was waiting in the slot. St. Germain fired the puck past Leavitt goaltender Cody Violette and the Capers had a 1-0 lead.
The Hornets got the tying goal just about three minutes later as Leavitt’s Steve Roulliard flipped the puck over Cape goaltender Phil Jordan, who had dropped to the ice to make a save.
The Capers caught a huge break towards the end of the second period when the Hornets were called for having too many men on the ice with 1:30 to go before the break. With just 3.2 seconds left in the period, Eubanks made the score 2-1 when he took the puck to the side of the Leavitt net and beat Violette with a hard shot for a power play goal. Zack Labbe was credited with an assist on the score.
Eubanks got his second power play goal of the game at 6:06 of the third period. After killing off a 5-on-3 advantage, the Hornets were still short a man when Labbe got the puck at one of the face off circles in the Hornets’ end. He fired a cross-ice pass to Eubanks at the other circle and Eubanks put home a high one-timer to give Cape a 3-1 lead. St. Germain was also credited with an assist on the play.
Cape closed out the scoring on a short-handed goal late in the game. With Cape down a man and Violette on the bench in favor of an extra skater, Cape’s Zachary Breed fired a long shot from the Cape end that found the Leavitt goal to clinch the game for the Capers.
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