Scarborough goalie Mckenzie Cormier watches the puck fly over her stick and just wide of the net off a shot from Falmouth’s Beatrice Johnson during Thursday night’s championship game at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston. Falmouth won the game and advances to Saturday’s state championship against Saint Dominic Academy.
LEWISTON — The Falmouth Yachtsmen never gave up the lead Thursday afternoon in its Southern Maine girls’ hockey regional final against Scarborough.
Devon Sarazin netted the game-winner and added an insurance goal in a 3-1 victory over the Red Storm. in what was a rematch of last year’s regional final that Scarborough won 5-2.
It feels great, we played them every year in the regional finals,” Sarazin said. “First year we lost, second year we won and last year we lost again. It was nice to take it my last year, my senior year — our captains, we are really close. It felt great to take this one home.”
The Yachtsmen jumped out quickly in the game when Evelyn Clement stole the puck in the neutral zone and broke in all alone on Scarborough’s goalie Mckenize Cormier. Clement went backhand, forehand, backhand to get Cormier to move, and slipped the puck past her 2:02 into the contest.
Rachel Morse got credit with the lone assist on the play.
“We knew goals were going to be hard to come by,” Falmouth coach Rob Carrier said. “Especially clean goals. We knew if we were going to get goals, odds are they would have to come off rebounds. That’s something we hammered home to the girls: any loose puck, we are battling for it.”
The Red Storm had plenty of chances to tie it up in the first, but they went scoreless on their three power play attempts in the period. They were 0-for-4 in the game, while Falmouth was scoreless on three chances.
Falmouth struck again at the end of the period when Devon Sarazin went into the offensive zone down the right wing, behind the play. Abigail Lebel was on the left wing with the puck. Her shot knuckle-balled it’s way past Cormier, but hit the post. Sarazin, uncovered, potted home the loose puck in the crease with 1:38 remaining in the first.
“We focused on getting a lot of shots on goal,” Sarazin said. “Abby did all the hard work; she came in, took that shot, and I was on the backdoor for that rebound. That’s kind of the goals — the dirty goals — that work great because every goal is the same on the board. Every goal matters, and you know it was hard work, you got to be there for those.”
Taylor Veilleux put the Red Storm on the board at the 4:38 mark of the second period. She took a shot at point-blank range at Alexandria Hurdman, and Hurdman appeared to stop it, but the puck trickled through her five hole.
Scarborough went seven-plus minutes without a shot on goal. The Red Storm did have their chances, though.
“We also hit the post a couple times, and we missed the net quite a bit,” Scarborough coach Caitlin D’Amour said. “So it’s hard to gain a rhythm — in order to score a goal, you got to hit the net. Again we couldn’t connect either way. I said to the girls after the game, use that last image of them holding the (trophy) and use it to motivate you during the offseason.”
Sarazin notched her second goal when she jammed home the puck that Cormier appeared to lose control of out of her glove. The goal came 1:47 into the third, with Stone Carmichael and Lebe picking up the assists.
The Yachtsmen controlled the play for the rest of the way as Scarborough had trouble entering the offensive zone in the last five minutes. After taking their timeout with 3:57 remaining, the Red Storm couldn’t pull Cormier at all within the final two minutes.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
