BRUNSWICK — Coming into Monday evening’s Class B South boys high school hockey clash with Maranacook/Winthrop/Madison/Spruce Mountain, Brunswick was looking to end a four-game losing streak and earn its first win in 2019.
The Dragons registered three quick scores and Jacob Doring netted four goals and added two assists as the Dragons blanked the Hawks, 6-0, at Sidney J. Watson Arena at Bowdoin College.
“We wanted to start the game coming out as strong as possible, try to put a few in, get the lead and go from there,” said Doring.
The Dragons improved to 6-5 and will face “Battle of the Bridge” foe Mt. Ararat/Lisbon/Morse/Hyde on Wednesday at Watson Arena (8 p.m.). The Hawks fell to 0-8 and host Kennebunk/Wells on Saturday (4 p.m.).
Scoring early was the key for the Dragons, who had failed to get into the win column so far in the calendar year and were coming off an 11-4 defeat to Greely on Saturday.
“We knew we had to be better than the Greely game,” Brunswick coach Mike Misner said. “I think for two periods in that game we competed, so that was the focus we wanted tonight, go out and compete like that.”
Doring opened the scoring 1:25 into the contest when he took a Michael Eno pass and pushed it past keeper Will Hayes for the goal. Less than a minute later, Doring and Henry Burnham fed Jack St. Pierre for the second tally, and just 6:16 into the game, Doring scored again for the quick 3-0 lead.
“It’s always important to score that first goal, but tonight we really wanted to go out and get that momentum,” Doring said.
“It’s good to get out there and get some goals and grab some positive momentum,” added Misner.
The score stood at 3-0 after one period, with the Dragons outshooting the Hawks, 10-1, in the frame.
“Mike’s got a good team, they have a couple of guys that can play,” Hawks coach Jack Rioux said. “We’re a very young team and inexperienced, we don’t have the maturity to come from behind. With two-thirds of our team freshmen and sophomores, it’s hard to create offense with that inexperience.”
Doring scored the lone goal in the second period after Burnham procured the puck, passing to St. Pierre before the forward hit Doring for the score.
Meanwhile, the Dragons and their defense kept the visitors away from the net and goalie Spencer Marquis. Burnham and junior Scout Masse patrolled the defensive zone, preventing the Hawks from setting anything up offensively.
“We’ve been preaching defense all season long as it has been a focus of ours,” Misner said. “Obviously we didn’t do enough against Greely, so we wanted to make sure we did enough tonight to protect our goalie, keeping everything outside and away from him.”
For the Hawks, the second period was more stable than the first, and Rioux sees his team coming together on the ice despite drawing from seven different youth hockey programs within four separate high schools.
“The kids have been great with it,” Rioux said. “The dynamics of a co-op are always interesting. It wouldn’t matter if they came from seven different towns. The fact is they all come from different programs before they were freshman, there is no continuity. We’re working on it.”
St. Pierre and Doring capped off the scoring in the third period for the Dragons. Brunswick finished with 22 shots to Maranacook’s four.
“We needed to play more man-to-man coverage. It seemed to work for us in the second, but in the third period, we stopped executing,” added Rioux. “Will didn’t have as good of a game in net for us tonight, but he’s been phenomenal for us this year.”
Brunswick will take the victory in stride, already looking ahead to Wednesday’s tilt with the Eagles.
“There’s a lot of things we still need to clean up from this game, but we’ll be ready for Ararat,” Misner said.
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