LEWISTON — After finishing a dominant regular season at 17-1 and with the best record in the state, the Cheverus/Kennebunk girls hockey team cruised to an 8-2 victory over Portland/Deering in the Southern Maine Conference Championship to advance to Saturday’s state title game.

“It feels so great — knowing that we get to represent our school and do this as a team with Cheverus. It feels amazing, we’re just one whole team together, we make a big family and it’s such a great moment,” said Cheverus/Kennebunk’s Caitlin Wolff after the win.

The Stags and the Bulldogs split the regular season at 1-1, and in the early going it looked like it would be another tight battle.

Emma McCauley would put the Stags ahead 1-0 at the 11:06 mark in the first on a power-play goal, but Portland/Deering’s Emma Merrill would even things up less than a minute later.

Sarah Noyes would score less than five minutes later, followed by a last-minute goal by Abby Lamontagne to give the Stags the 3-1 advantage heading into the second.

Lamontagne would add another goal midway through the second period to give Cheverus/Kennebunk the 4-1 advantage. Once again though, Portland/Deering would respond just 25 seconds later with a goal from Elena Clifford to make it 4-2 and stay within striking distance.

The Stags would catch fire late in the second and into the third, starting when Lucia Pompeo backhanded a shot in the net with 2:33 remaining in the second to extend the Cheverus/Kennebunk lead to 5-2 heading into the third.

“We just kept grinding them down low, wearing them down. They kind of got tired and that’s when we put the puck to the net,” said Wolff. “(It was) getting the nerves out, settling in, finding those passes and taking those shots. Just getting every opportunity we could in front of the net.”

“Once we got a couple in and took it deep we settled down a bit,” added Lamontagne. “We knew we just had to keep pressuring, we came in with great confidence but we knew we had a big game to play.”

McCauley scored her second goal early in the third to make the score 6-2, followed by goals from Pompeo and Olivia Adams to secure the 8-2 win. 

Cheverus/Kennebunk coach Scott Rousseau was pleased with his team’s poise in the early going, especially considering the Stags heavily outshot the Bulldogs in the first two periods.

“It’s trying to be patient. There was a point where it was like, ‘gee whiz, (the shots on goal) are 10-2, don’t you think it should be 3-0?’ I thought we were doing a lot of good things, they were playing well,” said Rousseau. “They were holding up the neutral zone well, I think they sacrificed some offensive chances to try to be more defensive and that’s OK. It’s the playoffs, the better word for us is not to be frustrated but to be patient.”

No. 3 Greely/Gray-New Gloucester won the Northern crown on Wednesday in an epic double overtime showdown against top-seeded Lewiston/Monmouth/Oak Hill.

The Stags will get back to practice today, and look forward to putting on a show on the state’s biggest stage.

“We have a lot of support. All of the Cheverus people know who we are, we’re a family,” said Lamontagne. “We have all the support from the people in Kennebunk too so that’s really nice.”

NOTES: Lamontagne added two assists, while Lucia Pompeo, Noyes, McCauley, Wolff, Hannah Woodford and Sophia Pompeo added one each for the Stags. Cheverus/Kennebunk goalie Anna Smith finished the day with eight saves. Portland/Deering goalie Adrianna Bodge recorded 17 saves in the loss.

— Associate Sports Editor Alex Sponseller can be reached at asponseller@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 323. 

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