Patrick Grant and Tyler Hall gave No. 2 Yarmouth two separate leads over No. 6 Gorham in the Class B West semis on Friday night, but the Rams’ Travis Mansir picked up a pair of his own – including a sudden-death winner – to sink the Clippers in the end.
“It was exciting,” Gorham head coach John Portwine said, chuckling. “I don’t know how many more games like that I can take.”
3-2 was the final, then, in a rowdy bout between rivals who sparred through two similarly tense matchups in the regular season – both of which Yarmouth took, though narrowly. The Clippers bested Gorham 2-1 on Jan. 31, then 1-0 a couple weeks later, on Feb. 14.
“Our two games with them earlier in the season were really close,” Portwine said. “We were capable of beating them; it just didn’t happen.”
The latter battle fell on Valentine’s Day, but it’s safe to say Yarmouth and the Rams displayed no excess of affection that afternoon. Nor did the teams hug it out Friday evening (and their very vocal student fan contingents certainly didn’t bond over shared concessions), when each squad challenged the other early.
It was the Clippers who first lit the lamp, however. A Gorham icing brought the biscuit back to the Rams’ end, where Grant picked it up following the faceoff; Grant scooted left with the puck, apparently aiming to skirt behind Gorham goalie Noah Bird’s net and set something up – but trickily poking a shot between Bird and the post for 1-0.
“They outshot us pretty handily in the first period,” Portwine said. “We missed the net a ton, so on the scoreboard it looked pretty lopsided.”
The Rams needed the better part of the second period to even the score, but with just over three minutes remaining before the break, they did exactly that. Carl Bear assisted Matt Hooker on the play, though Yarmouth would go up again roughly five minutes into the third – Hall’s goal, assisted by Grant, as well as Cooper May.
“Second period, we came out, we played much better,” Portwine said. “[Hooker’s goal] was kind of a messy play in front of the net.”
Another five minutes on, defeat looming, Mansir cleared his throat, notching his first to tie things up at two apiece. Jordan Ward assisted on the point – just as he did midway through OT, when Mansir added his second and ended the game suddenly.
“He’s a left-hand shot,” Portwine said of Mansir, “and he was skating down the right side. He shot far post, and [Clippers goalie] Nick Allen kind of kicked out his pad; I guess it hit his pad and then popped over and hit the inside post and just barely crossed the goal line.”
On paper, the result looks like an upset. Given the Rams’ two previous falls to the Clippers, a betting soul might’ve put smart money on a third. On the other hand, maybe two defeats were all Gorham needed to dig deep and unearth the triumph they did, indeed, unearth.
In either case, there is a fair amount of parity in B West: fewer than 20 Heal points separated the second seed (again, the Clippers) from the sixth (the Rams) when the postseason kicked off, and all five teams had roughly similar records. By contrast, No. 1 Kennebunk was 30 points or so ahead of Yarmouth and No. 7 Greely was 70 points back from Gorham.
“It was one to write about,” Portwine said. “It was an unbelievable game. I thought we were evenly matched; Yarmouth’s got some incredible players. [Allen] played really well, once again, against us. Just a bad hop over his pad.
“All three matchups just came down to the way the puck bounced.”
Yarmouth retires for the year at 11-8-1; Gorham jumps to 13-5-2 and advances to Wednesday night, Mar. 4’s, Regional Final vs. Kennebunk, who defeated fifth-place Cape Elizabeth in Friday’s earlier game.
Gorham’s Jordan Ward (12), Carl Bear (8) and Travis Mansir triple-team Yarmouth’s Walter Conrad on the attack Friday night.
Gorham’s Travis Mansir locks up with Yarmouth’s Walter Conrad.
Gorham’s Carter Landry works away from Clipper Noah Grondin (12) while trying to work around Brian Travers (14) as well.
Matt Madrid takes up his spot on defense against Gorham Friday night.
Gorham’s Andrew Schmidt has stepped up admirably this season, playing additional minutes in place of Matt Hooker, who’s been injured on and off.
Yarmouth’s Anders Newberg and Gorham’s Lucas Roop keep their distance from one another, and their eyes on the action.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
