Senior captain Ollie Bateman said he was moved to tears because he and his teammates are going somewhere no other Brunswick boys’ hockey team has: the Class B state championship game.
The second-ranked Dragons ended top-seeded Greely’s two-year reign as state championships, scoring three goals in a 52-second span in the third period to win the Class B South final, 6-4, on Tuesday at Cross Insurance Arena.
Brunswick, which needed five overtimes to beat Cheverus/Yarmouth in the regional semifinal on Friday, couldn’t hold early leads of 1-0 or 2-1, but put the game away early in the third on goals by Bateman, Nick Marro and Sam Masse. The Dragons then held on to improve to 16-4 and set up a Class B state final showdown Saturday against either Camden Hills or Hampden Academy, who meet in the Class B North final on Wednesday in Orono.
“I kind of started tearing up on the bench with tears of joy,” said Bateman, who scored twice and added an assist. “It was emotional. We’ve worked so hard for this all season. We just went out there and wanted it.”
Greely (16-5) came out firing, putting eight shots on Brunswick goalie Luke Patterson in the game’s first six minutes. Patterson stopped them all and got some help from his defense, which blocked several other promising bids.
On its first good chance, Brunswick struck when Brady LaForge got the puck to Bateman, who steered it past Rangers goalie Keji Wiessner (21 saves) for a 1-0 lead at 8:52.
Greely then pulled even on the power play, as Ryan Moore got the puck up top to Evan Dutil, who ripped a blast through traffic and past Patterson at 10:42. Just 20 seconds later, the Dragons retook the lead. Joe Marro had an initial shot saved, and after Wiessner denied a bid from Bateman, Marro pounced on the rebound and fired it home for a 2-1 advantage.
“We started, in many ways, playing the way we wanted to, but there were some unfortunate circumstances that led to goals for them,” said Rangers Coach Barry Mothes.
Dutil and the Rangers promptly answered in the second period. Dutil got the puck from Charlie Moore, raced into the offensive zone, skated in on Patterson and finished to tie it, 2-2, at 3:14.
Brunswick had a chance to answer when it went on the power play, but couldn’t convert and the rest of the period belonged to Wiessner and Patterson, who kept the contest deadlocked heading to the third period.
The Dragons then shocked the Rangers by quickly turning a 2-2 game into a 5-2 contest.
Just 1:34 into the third, Bateman put Brunswick on top for good, finishing from Nick Marro and LeForge.
Next, it was Nick Marro’s turn at 2:02, as AJ Wolverton got the assist.
Then, 24 seconds later, Masse scored from Nick Marro.
“We just put it on the guys,” said Dragons Coach Mike Misner. “We didn’t want to leave anything on the table. We didn’t want to regret the third period and we certainly didn’t want to go into overtime. The boys just came out strong.”
Greely responded, getting power-play goals from Ryan Moore and Gage Cooney on a rebound to make things very interesting. However, after the Rangers pulled their goalie, Grey Perham fired the puck the length of the ice and it found the target to clinch it.
“This means a lot,” said Patterson, who made 27 saves. “(Winning a regional title has) never happened before and it’s good to see. We’ll just keep doing what we’re doing.”
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