PORTLAND — The idea of the City Cup was to generate excitement when the two Portland public high school hockey teams met.
Exciting it was.

Portland High proved better on special teams Saturday night and beat Deering 4-2 at the Portland Ice Arena.

Bronson Guimond scored twice – the winner in the second period and an empty-netter in the third.
Four goals were scored on Deering’s power play. Unfortunately for the Rams, three were short-handed by Portland.

“We like to joke and say there are less guys to get in the way (on a penalty kill),” Portland Coach Andy Gildart said.

But Gildart wasn’t pleased by his team’s penalties, including a 10-minute hit-from-behind call on Guimond in the first period.

“I didn’t expect the emotions to get the best of our guys,” Gildart said. “They got caught up in the crowd. The fans cheered every collision and our guys got amped up. Some of our guys lost composure.”

The Bulldogs still outshot Deering 9-7 in the first period, which ended 2-2.

Deering took a 1-0 lead when Connor Petropoulos intercepted a pass in the Bulldogs’ zone and snapped in a score at 3:49.

But then came the Bulldogs’ dangerous penalty kill.

Eddie Apon took a rebound and scored on a wraparound at 11:35, Antonio DiPietro assisting.
Thirteen seconds later, Zach Luce dumped in the puck, Mike Fuller scored, and it was 2-1.

On another Deering power play, Petropoulos got the puck behind Portland’s net and fed Denny Patenaude for a one-timer to make it 2-2 with eight seconds left in the period.

In the second, the Bulldogs had a power play nullified when a Portland player also went to the box. Then Deering’s penalty expired and the Rams had the man advantage. But the puck was in Deering’s zone.

Guimond took a pass from defenseman Anthony Bowden and buried it at 13:22 for a 3-2 lead.

“Not a fancy goal but it took the lead,” Guimond said. “We didn’t play how we should.”
Still, the Bulldogs outshot the Rams 16-5 in the final two periods. Portland goalie Johnny Gatti made 10 saves.

Deering used all 13 skaters, including two players from the girls’ team that folded.

“We don’t have a big bench and everyone’s been working, so we wanted to use everybody,” Deering Coach Jack Lowry said. “I thought we did a good job. We made a couple of mistakes on the (first two) short-handed goals but we learned a lot, it was a great game, a good cause.”

Proceeds went to support Portland middle-school hockey.

Staff Writer Kevin Thomas can be contacted at 791-6411 or at:

kthomas@pressherald.com

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