LEWISTON — Jordan Mynahan had herself a third period.
Lewiston/Oak Hill/Monmouth trailed entering the final frame, but the junior forward scored a natural hat trick to lead the Blue Devils to a 6-4 win over the Gorham/Bonny Eagle Rams on Wednesday at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.
“I think we just started passing it more cross ice, with their (defense) coming in toward one side,” Mynahan said. “They would leave one side open, and I think our centers picked up on that. They started passing it wide and I scored on a breakaway. It’s about beating the other girl and putting a shot on their goalie.”
Gorham/Bonny Eagle coach Nathaniel Germond was pleased with how his team played, despite giving up the lead in the third period.
“Going with a 4-3 lead into the third period, you are hoping you are going to hang on,” Germond said. “They outplayed us in the third period, and they got a bunch of great players over there for Lewiston. They finished when they needed to and we struggled a little towards to the end.
“On the whole, I thought the girls played really well. I thought it was a close, competitive game. It’s one of those hockey games where somebody’s got to lose.”
Mynahan tied the game at 4-4 6:30 into the third period. Gorham goalie Izzy Wareham made the initial save on Adri Roy, but the puck fell out of her sweater into the crease, where Mynahan swiped the puck in. Katie Lemieux earned the secondary assist.
The game-winning goal was probably Mynahan’s best of the night. Jaylin Cloutier sent the puck through the neutral zone. Mynahan turned on the afterburners and caught up with the puck in the offensive zone where she curled to the left with a power forward move. She crashed into Wareham as the puck tricked over the line at the 10:40 mark.
“When I fell, my whole body turned towards the ref and when he put his hand down, I saw the puck trickle in a little bit,” Mynahan said. “That’s when I knew it went in, and everyone came to me.”
Veda Leclerc found Mynahan 28 seconds later, and the junior completed the natural hat trick.
“Then she showed a little bit of her hands, how sweet her hands are with that other goal,” Lewiston coach Ron Dumont. “She’s got a lot of dimensions to her game that aren’t overt, that you don’t see right there in front of you. When she gets the puck on her stick, she’s a smart hockey player. She knows what to do for the situation.”
After five minutes of the teams feeling each other out to start the game, it was the Blue Devils that broke the ice at the 5:32 mark when Leclerc scored to give Lewiston the 1-0 lead.
Celia Begonia tied the contest up just past the eight-minute mark of the first period when her shot fluttered over everybody and into the goal. Lewiston regained the lead 26 seconds later when Lemieux found Roy.
In the second period, the Rams dominated the shots early on, and at one point they had a 7-1 shot advantage. Karen Stemm tied the game up at two at the 3:28 mark of the middle frame. Lewiston, though, capitalized on the game’s first power play when Leclerc’s shot just inside the blue line was deflected by Lemieux, who set up shop in the slot to give the Blue Devils a 3-2 lead.
Gorham went into the locker room with a 4-3 lead after scoring two goals in a 61-second span. Anna Rathbun tied the game up at the 12:45 mark. Begonia picked up her second goal when she set herself up to the right of the crease. Isis Adams’ shot was saved by Camree St. Hilaire, but the rebound went right to Begonia, who delivered the punk into a half-open net with 2:14 left to play in the period.
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