GORHAM — Scarborough senior Sam Rumelhart swooped in with the puck and drew considerable attention, justifiably so.
He avoided one defender, but another stepped up to force Rumelhart wide of the net … providing an opening for trailing teammate Wyatt Grondin.
“He got caught down low, then dropped it middle,” said Grondin, a freshman, “and I just finished it.”
Grondin’s goal a little more than two minutes into overtime lifted seventh-seeded Scarborough to a 6-5 victory over No. 10 Portland/Deering in a Class A boys’ hockey preliminary-round game Wednesday night at USM Ice Arena.
The Red Storm (10-8-1) advance to a quarterfinal at No. 2 Bangor (14-3). Portland/Deering finishes a deceptive 6-11.
After an 0-9 start that included a 7-1 loss to Scarborough, Portland/Deering turned things around to win six of seven and five in a row entering the playoffs.
“They just kept improving,” Bulldogs Coach Jeff Beaney said. “We aren’t the prettiest team, but man, we’re hard to play against. We do a lot of little things well.”
Despite trailing by four goals late in the second period, Portland/Deering rallied to force overtime. Nick Walsh converted a power play with 1:15 left in the second, and Andrew Legere tipped in a shot by Clyde Spencer in the opening minute of the third to make it 5-3.
Three minutes later, Colby Winship buried a rebound during another power play. It remained 5-4 until the final minute of regulation, with goalie Ryan Becker on the bench in favor of an extra skater.
A cross-checking penalty gave Portland/Deering a 6-on-4 advantage with 44 seconds remaining, and Legere tied it after a wild scramble in front of the Scarborough net with 27 seconds left.
“We kind of let up a little bit there,” Rumelhart said about Scarborough’s 5-1 lead. “We were kind of expecting it to be like last time, but it wasn’t. They didn’t stop. They kept battling.”
A tripping penalty on Portland/Deering with 11 seconds remaining gave Scarborough a power play to start overtime, but Decker (29 saves) made two big stops.
Sixteen seconds after the penalty expired, though, it was over.
“I’m just proud of how the team came together and finished and didn’t let the late penalty get to us,” said Scarborough Coach Eric Wirsing. “We knew they would come back and give us a fight, and they really did.”
Rumelhart, who scored four times in the earlier victory against Portland/Deering, had two goals – one of them short-handed – to go along with his overtime assist. Olin Pedersen also scored twice and Jordan Sheppard once for Scarborough.
Red Storm goalie Keegan Weed finished with 21 saves, more than half of them in the frenetic third period after seeing only three shots in the second.
“It was a tough game for Keegan to find a rhythm just because of how infrequent sometimes the opportunities were,” Wirsing said. “But he made some big saves toward the end of the game when we really needed him to and gave us a chance to win.”
Portland senior Carlos Braceras scored on a power play late in the first period to make it 1-1 heading into the first intermission. Scarborough answered with four consecutive goals over an eight-minute stretch of the second period.
“I’m so proud of the kids,” Beaney said. “A lot of teams at 5-1 could have said ‘Screw it,’ and it ends up 8-1, 9-1. But they turned it around. There’s no quit in them.”
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