BRUNSWICK — A young York boys’ hockey team recovered from its first loss of the season with a 3-1 win against Brunswick on Monday in a Class B South game at Watson Arena.
The Wildcats allowed only three shots on goal in building a 2-0 lead during the first two periods to raise its record to 8-1.
“(York has) some of the more talented players that I’ve seen all season, and they’re well-coached,” Brunswick Coach Bill Bodwell said. “There’s no mystery to why they are now 8-1. They have some very skilled players. “
York, which includes nine sophomores on its 15-player roster, was coming off a 5-2 loss last Saturday night to a Class A team made up of players from Lake Region, Fryeburg Academy and Oxford Hills.
“There’s a lot of skill on this team,” York Coach Jim Powers said. “Good skating, good stick-handling, good shooting right on down through the freshmen … We don’t have a lot of numbers so they get tired, but they just never stop working.”
“We’re all just a bunch of young kids, and we just want to be successful this season,” said Jacob Martin, a sophomore forward who had a goal and an assist.
The Wildcats opened the scoring less than four minutes into the game when Thomas Carr put in a quick shot from the left hash mark inside the far post after receiving Nicholas Giles’ centering pass from the end boards to the left of the goal. It was York’s first shot of the game.
With less than two minutes left in the second period, Spencer Pickett made it 2-0 by jamming the rebound of a shot by Martin in between goalie Riley Kirk’s pads.
Brunswick finally got going offensively in the third period.
With less than seven minutes left, Matt Deveaux made it 2-1 when he scored on a breakaway. The play started with Deveaux blocking a shot and then gaining control outside of his blue line and beating the defense down ice.
Martin sealed the victory by scoring an empty-net goal in the final minute.
It was the second consecutive loss for Brunswick (5-5-1), in its first season in Class B.
“What we’re discovering is that Class B South is a very tough division, top to bottom,” Bodwell said. “You’ve got a whole host of teams that have a good hockey history. It’s tough. My goal right now is I’d love to make a playoff spot, but we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
The Wildcats lost 12 players to graduation from a team went into last season’s regional tournament as the No. 3 seed, losing to No. 6 Gorham 6-2 in the quarterfinals.
Powers doesn’t seem surprised by the team’s early-season success.
“The kids who came back who were freshmen last year were good players,” he said. “They got a lot of ice time for us last year.”
“We’re putting in a lot of hard work during practice,” said Martin.
“We’re passing the puck well, and I think we’re working well as a team. For the most part, everybody in doing their job on defense, and that is helping out a lot.”
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