FALMOUTH — For the second time in two weeks, Greely pulled out a 3-2 win over Edward Little/Leavitt/Poland in an important high school girls’ hockey game Thursday night at Family Ice.
“We faced them a couple of weeks ago and we knew they were a strong team,” said Ellie Schad, who scored from the top of the slot for a 3-1 lead less than 10 minutes into the second period.
“We knew it was going to be a fight.”
On Jan. 14, the Rangers defeated Edward Little 3-2 at Norway Savings Bank Arena in Auburn.
“It’s always competitive when we play EL/Leavitt,” Greely Coach Nate Guerin said. “It was 3-2 again and we were pretty fortunate to beat them again.”
It was the 14th consecutive victory for Greely since opening the season Nov. 26 with an 8-2 loss to unbeaten St. Dominic at Family Ice.
“We knew we needed to get this win for home ice in the playoffs,” Schad said. “This was a really big game for us so we just couldn’t give up.”
The victory tightened the Rangers’ hold on second place behind the top-ranked Saints in the North Division Heal point standings.
“We’re very evenly matched,” said Edward Little Coach Shon Collins said. “A mistake here or there changes the game. We had a couple of breakdowns in our defensive zone and that ends up being the difference in the game.”
Neither team had many chances to score.
“Both teams played very well defensively and limited each other,” Collins said.
“Leavitt takes care of the front of the net really well,” Guerin said.
“We were doing a good job getting the puck to the front of the net but not as many (scoring) chances that we would like.”
Edward Little (9-4-1) opened the scoring 24 seconds into the game when defenseman Saige Arsenault fired a right-handed shot past goalie Nica Todd while skating across the slot.
A little more than two minutes later, Courtney Sullivan of Greely wheeled into the slot from the left circle and beat goalie Maranda Guimond to the glove side with a shot from just above the right hashmark to make it 1-1.
With less than four minutes left in the first period, Bridget Roberts fired in a shot from the left circle through a screen of four players to put Greely into the lead.
The goal was set up by hustling play from Victoria Lattanzi, who outraced everyone down the ice to touch the puck and avoid an icing call, enabling the Rangers to maintain possession of the puck.
After Schad scored her goal, Angel Drouin of Edward Little scored on a shot from near the left dot to make it 3-2 with less than two minutes left in the second period.
Greely didn’t sit on its lead. In the third period it held a 12-4 edge in shots on goal.
“We were able to regroup (during the break) and come back hard, limit their chances,” Guerin said.
“We tried to do the little things right and keep the puck in their end, which the girls did a good job doing.”
Todd preserved the victory for the Rangers when she stopped Mariah Vaillancourt on a breakaway in the final minutes of the game.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
