Gray-New Gloucester/Poland notched a powerplay goal per period Saturday afternoon, Dec. 7, to claim a 3-0 victory over South Portland on the Red Riots’ home ice. Ethan Cailler, Ryan Lavoie and Isaiah Dubois proved a formidable scoring-assisting trio, with Cailler tallying two goals, Lavoie a goal and an assist, and Dubois two assists in the season-opening W.
GNG/Poland charge into 2013-14 at 1-0, while South Portland stumbles to 0-1.
Asked what he took away from the loss, South Portland head coach Joe Robinson chuckled, saying, “That we have a lot to work on. Definitely D-zone coverage; we had a lot of running around, not a lot of discipline.”
“We lost a lot of battles on the blue,” Robinson said, elaborating on the Red Riots’ defensive missteps.
“But in all fairness to our guys,” he said, “with the lack of ice-time, preseason – due to not being able to practice at the Civic Center – we haven’t really had the time that we need to be ready for an opener.”
The score lingered at 0-0 until deep into the first period, when a hooking call against the Red Riots’ Calvin Cronin gave GNG/Poland the edge they needed and Dubois assisted Cailler on the game’s first point.
South Portland played a substantial chunk of the game down a man, as they accrued nine penalties totaling 26 minutes. Two of their minors came on headcount flub-ups, resulting in too-many-men penalties, but too-many-men penalties still confer a disadvantage.
For GNG/Poland head coach Travis Jalbert, whose team logged just eight minutes in the sin bin, the Red Riots’ transgressions were a boon. “We did a good job staying out of the box, so we played a lot of time five on four. So we had a lot of opportunities, and I have guys that can handle the puck pretty well down low. So it just creates more open ice.”
But for Robinson, the foul-play requires immediate attention. “You can’t have 10 penalties in a game and expect to come out on top. I don’t care what league you’re in.”
When, in the second period, South Portland captain Andrew Whipple piled into the box to serve two minutes for holding, Dubois found Lavoie, who put his team on top, 2-0.
“I think their goalie did a good job,” Jalbert said. “He made a lot of saves down low on rebounds; so it was just talking to [my players], making sure the rebounds, bear down, put them upstairs and try to finish.”
The Red Riots came alive as the second period wound down, playing harder and generating a number of quality opportunities of their own, including multiple breakaways.
They carried their newfound intensity into the third, but couldn’t get in back of GNG/Poland goalie Nick Hemond, who continued to thwart even the Red Riots’ one-on-ones.
“I thought we played very well in the third,” Robinson said. “We poured it on hard in the third. But it was just too late…I said [to the team], ‘You’ve got to find another gear. I’ve seen more than three goals scored in 15 minutes in high school hockey plenty of times. You’ve got to chip away.’”
GNG/Poland secured their conquest just over five minutes into the third. This time, a tripping call against Tyler Goldberg had temporarily hobbled the Red Riots, giving Lavoie the freedom to find Cailler, and Cailler the freedom to find the back of South Portland’s net.
The game would end 3-0.
Despite the loss, Robinson had praise for some of his players – in particular, his goalie, Shannon Tulley. “That game could very easily have been six, seven goals,” Robinson said. “I thought Shannon made a lot of great saves. I don’t fault him on any of the three that we let up.”
South Portland’s Andrew Whipple and GNG/Poland’s Dom Belanger go head-to-head over the puck in the corner. Send questions/comments to the editors.
