SOUTH PORTLAND – The Westbrook Blue Blazes came on strong Saturday night, Dec. 14, but a flurry of late penalties halted their momentum and allowed South Portland to get out of trouble. Then, with just about a minute to play in the third period, Red Riot Kyle Halvorsen notched his second goal of the night to give his team a 4-3 lead and the W.

The home-ice loss is Westbrook’s second in a row. South Portland improves to 2-1 on the year.

“I commend [my] guys,” Robinson said. “They battled back. I just told them now, we shouldn’t have been in that situation to begin with; I think we’re a better team than that. Fortunately, it worked out; they dug deep.”

Westbrook got on the board first, and early: just 10 seconds into period No. 1, Darien Doucette scored unassisted on South Portland goalie Shannon Tully. Less than 10 minutes later, Doucette repeated the feat, ripping a wrister from near the left-corner faceoff dot and beating Tully on the far side, top corner. 2-0.

The Red Riots attacked hard, early in period two. Their increased intensity paid off when the puck squirted loose near center ice and Halvorsen picked it up; he zigzagged into the offensive almost unchallenged and beat Blazes goalie Alex LeBlanc in a one-on-one. 2-1.

“We came out super-slow today,” South Portland head coach Joe Robinson said. Asked how he juiced his squad up, Robinson chuckled and said, “Honestly, I told them [the first period] was one of the worst periods of hockey I’d ever seen.

“I always tell them, ‘I’m going to be the first one to tell you when you’re doing something wrong, but I’ll also be the first one to tell you when you’re doing it right. I’m not going to lie. I just said, ‘You came out, it’s cold, it’s snowing, it’s a late night – you can find all the excuses you want, but the fact is, you’ve gotta battle back. We dug a huge hole.’”

Both teams’ aggression peaked in the third. Westbrook, though, turned their fire into penalty minutes. What started as a cross-checking minor for freshman Matt Kelly quickly snowballed into two additional minors and a 10-minute misconduct as the Blazes’ tempers got the best of them.

The Riots squeezed an easy goal out of their 5-3 advantage when senior Christian Guignard, with all the time in the on-ice world, lined up a great wrister from near the point; it snuck by LeBlanc at the top-left corner for 2-2.

South Portland struggled with infractions early this season themselves, but have successfully slashed their penalty-kill minutes over the course of their few games so far. “I think we had twelve the first game,” Robinson said. “[Then] we had six – we cut it in half; and I think we cut it in half again tonight.”

With just over 10 minutes to play, Westbrook picked up another two minutes in the sin bin for unsportsmanlike conduct, and South Portland picked up another goal. Andrew Whipple juked around two defenders near the top of the right-corner faceoff spot, then slipped the puck across for Chris Mitchell, waiting in front of the net, to redirect and score. 3-2.

But the Blazes made it a game again on a controversial tally with 6:35 remaining. Jacob Webster’s shot appeared to hit Tully in the facemask, and when the puck next showed itself, it was safely beneath Tully’s pads and well outside the net. Tully seemed confused when the referee called a goal, but with no goal judges, the call stood.

It ultimately wouldn’t matter. The game seemed headed for overtime, yes, but only until Whipple cut around the back of Westbrook’s net with the puck; he slipped a clever pass to Halvorsen in front, who one-timed the go-ahead game-winner past LeBlanc, who collapsed facedown on the ice.

Robinson had praise for a number of his players. “Whipple turned it on really well,” he said. Whipple’s provided crucial playmaking. “I think he carried the majority of the play.”

“Kyle turned it on good; he had a good game. He had some good bids, a couple of goals, and they were huge.”

South Portland faces off at Bonny Eagle Saturday, Dec. 21, at 5:50 p.m. Westbrook travels to Waterville on Thursday the 19th for a 6 p.m. ice time.

South Portland’s Kyle Halvorsen meets Westbrook goalie Alex LeBlanc one-on-one Saturday night. Halvorsen got the goal, his first of two on the night. Andrew Whipple, who had three assists in South Portland’s 4-3 comeback victory against Westbrook Saturday night, charges up ice.

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