LEWISTON — The Biddeford boys hockey team beat top-seeded Cheverus 6-5 in double overtime on Tuesday to advance to the Class A state title game for the first time in eight years.

After a wild regulation and a scoreless overtime, the Tigers would finally put the game away when captain Curtis Petit connected with cousin Colin Petit, who sailed a shot into the top of the net for the win.

“It feels amazing — I’ve been dreaming about this since I was a kid, watching Brian Dumoulin. We didn’t panic, we’ve (come back) before, we’re just a resilient group and we showed it tonight,” said Colin Petit after the win.

Biddeford held a 4-3 lead midway through the third period after the teams went goal-for-goal throughout the contest. Cheverus’ Cam Dube would break the pattern and score two goals to give the Stags the 5-4 lead with just 1:12 remaining.

However, the Tigers would respond with just 31 seconds remaining on a goal from Trevor Ouellette to force overtime.

“The resiliency in this group is uncanny and they showed it again tonight,” said Biddeford coach Jason Tremblay. “These guys are all in, they mean business, they execute the adjustments. It’s hard — it’s hard for high school kids to look at a board and make a quick adjustment in a game of this magnitude.”

The two teams went scoreless in the first period, but would each score twice in the second period. Ian Couture scored twice while Colby Anton and Justin Ray scored for Cheverus.

Couture would secure the hat trick with a goal early in the third to give Biddeford the 3-2 lead, but Jackson Wilson would tie it for the Stags minutes later. Nick McSorley went on to score Biddeford’s fourth goal.

Tremblay felt that his team’s strong situational play stemmed from hard work in practice throughout the week.

“You just try to put them in the best position you can, you try to run a drill, throw a power play in. 6-on-5, 5-on-4, just every situation you think they could be in. The bottom line is it comes down to the guys on the ice, they executed to perfection,” said Tremblay.

Colin Petit also believed that the Tigers won the war of attrition in the extra periods. Despite the Stags leading Biddeford 31-21 in shots on goal in regulation, the Tigers would win the same battle 14-5 in the overtimes.

“Half way through the overtime we knew we were getting to them. (After) the break we knew they were going to try to get to us early and we knew we were going to have to brave it and get one later … so we did,” said Petit.

“I don’t know what it is, they don’t get down. We talk about (how) we can be down 3-1, 4-1, it doesn’t matter, this group is going to keep coming,” added Tremblay. “After we tied that game I think Cheverus had an uphill battle. I just think momentum swung and you could see that they started to get tired on defense.”

The Tigers will move on to face the Northern winner on Saturday in Lewiston. Although the Tigers are focused on getting one more win, they also hope to celebrate the one they got on Tuesday.

“They’re celebrating tonight, we’ve got one more but let’s have some fun,” said Tremblay. “Not enough people get to do this, I told them before the game to embrace the hard. You don’t get a lot of chances in life to feel like this.”

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