YARMOUTH — When Yarmouth and Brunswick skated to a 2-2 deadlock in a boys’ hockey season opener Saturday, at Travis Roy Arena the postgame reactions were far from alike.

The home team, coming off an appearance in last season’s Class B state championship game, expected more.

“We are definitely disappointed,” said Clippers Coach David St. Pierre. “For stretches of the game, I thought we played well. We had our chances and we had a lot of open looks.

“Honestly, I think this is one of those games that we will look back on and wish we had finished the right way.”

Brunswick, an up-and-coming squad that ended last year with a loss in the Class B South quarterfinals, was pleased with its effort. Jacob Doring’s goal with 2:28 remaining, while his team was on the penalty kill, enabled the Dragons to avoid a season-opening loss.

“(Yarmouth) played (for the) state championship last year, so (a tie against them) is a big benchmark for us to see how we are doing,” Brunswick Coach Bill Bodwell said. “I am never happy with a tie, but the way it happened, being down and scoring in the last minutes, I was a little worried.”

The late tally was one of a handful of short-handed opportunities for the visitors, including a two-on-one for Doring and Michael Deveaux while killing off a major penalty called with 2:58 left in the eight-minute overtime. Clippers goalie Dan Latham (19 saves) made an arm save on Deveaux’s wrister from the right circle.

“It’s always difficult with special teams at the high school level to have it click the way you want it to be clicking at the start of the season,” Bodwell added.

Both teams had odd-man rushes at the start of overtime. Doring and Deveaux had another two-on-one off the faceoff. Moments later, Yarmouth’s Bennett Travers intercepted a pass at his defensive blue line, setting up a scoring chance, but his shot was smothered by Brunswick goalie Riley Kirk (28 saves).

Yarmouth generated many opportunities during the abbreviated five-minute power play in overtime. A wrister from the slot by Bill Jacobs was saved by Kirk, who also stopped Dom Morrill’s rebound bid from in close.

Yarmouth got on the board 3:28 into the middle period. Morrill took a shot from the point and it deflected through a maze of players, but Kirk made the save. After Cooper May’s rebound was turned aside, Chris Romano buried the puck from the doorstep.

Brunswick answered 37 seconds later when Andrew Eno’s wrister from inside the left circle snuck past Latham. Alex Labbe registered the lone assist.

The Dragons almost grabbed their first lead with 4½ minutes gone in the third period when Doring raced around the net and fired a shot from the bottom of the left circle. The puck trickled toward the goal line, but Spencer King cleared it.

Yarmouth took the lead again with 6:46 left in regulation when the teams were skating four-on-four. Defenseman Owen Ramsay whipped a shot from the right boards that eluded Kirk.

“We absolutely felt we should have won,” said Romano. “In all honesty, this is a team we should beat. But things didn’t go our way today.”

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