For the second straight year, the Biddeford Tigers and Thornton Academy Golden Trojans will meet for the Western Maine Class A title.
Biddeford downed a stiff challenge by No. 4 Falmouth and skated out of the Colisee with a 3-0 triumph on Saturday afternoon.
Thornton Academy advanced to the title game by pounding Marshwood/Traip 8-1 on Saturday, also at the Colisee.
In Biddeford’s game, Tyler Audie, Brady Fleurent, and Tyson Nadeau each scored once, and sophomore goalie Jon Fields handled 19 shots flawlessly to send the defending state champion Tigers into Tuesday’s Western final against No. 2 Thornton Academy.
Make that, arch-rival Thornton Academy, over whom they prevailed in two regular season meetings, as well as in last year’s regional final.
“They’ve been playing great hockey,” said Audie, “but so have we. So it’s going to be a good battle. We’re ready for it. It’s our fourth Western Maines in the last five years. We know what to expect and it’s going to be a good game.”
And likely a battle for every inch of ice, much like the one posed by the Yachtsmen, who fought them to a scoreless standstill through the first period.
“We just knew we had to stick to our plan,” said senior defenseman Nick Gagne. “Be patient, and it would come to us.”
“It was about staying patient,” said Biddeford coach Rich Reissfelder, echoing the theme. “It’s nothing-nothing after one, big deal. We’re not going to fold, we’re not going to start panicking. We’re just going to keep building and taking care of stuff in our zone. I think this was a great example of that.”
Falmouth, one of three teams to have tied the undefeated Tigers this year, was content to clog up the neutral zone in an effort to keep Biddeford’s top scorers from dictating play.
“They came out strong to start,” said Audie, “and we expected that. They were really looking for an upset.”
The Yachtsmen nearly took the lead in the opening moments of the second stanza, but Fields, who has spun shutouts in four of his last five games, made a superb kick save on a chance from close range.
For Thornton on Saturday, the Golden Trojans barreled over Marshwood/Traip. They out shot the Hawks 42-21 and Sam Canales led Thornton with two goals on the afternoon, and though the Hawks snapped goalie Jay Finch’s four-game shutout streak, he finished the contest with 20 saves.
Canales said Thornton is playing at another level since the team last played against the Tigers.
“I think we’re a totally different team from the last time we played Biddeford,” Canales said. “Just in doing everything a little bit better.”
Special teams also played a key role, as the Trojans were 4 of 5 on the penalty kill, and are 7 of 8 in the category in the playoffs.
Thornton kicked off the scoring four minutes into the first period, when defenseman Dakota Matthews took a pass off the face off from Rob Downing and fired a slap shot from the point past the right leg pad of Marshwood goalie Tyler Gagnon for the 1-0 lead.
For the rest of the first period, the Hawks proved how they advanced to the semifinals, keeping the pressure on Finch. Thornton tried to counteract with cross-ice passes, but had trouble with accuracy, at least in the first period.
Marshwood fired 10 shots in the first period that Finch saved, and escaped the timeframe down 1-0.
“We made three significant adjustments in this game, not because we weren’t playing well, but because Marshwood was forcing us to try to do something different,” Rousseau said. “So my sense is they were prepared and did something very, very wise ”¦ Marshwood gave us everything we could handle. They played very intelligently. They played very poised, very disciplined and worst of all, very patient. It was a while there before we could find a string of goals.”
Canales echoed his coach’s sentiments.
“They had more than I thought,” Canales said. “They played us perfect, strategy-wise. They certainly bottled us up. The last couple of games, we’ve been sending a guy out in the neutral zone, and they knew exactly how to play it, so we had to switch things up, make a few adjustments.”
Thornton and Biddeford will play for the Western Maine Class A title on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Colisee in Lewiston.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
