HALLOWELL

The Brunswick High School special teams play, combined with goalie Blake Alexander’s standout effort, led to a 5-0 ice hockey win over the Cony at the Bank of Maine Ice Vault on Saturday.

Alexander was excited about his first shutout of the season, but pointed out that he was more impressed with the Dragons’ bounce back effort.

“We didn’t quite have the game that we wanted last game (against Biddeford, 6-3 loss). I thought we changed up our plans a little bit and put it together,” Alexander said.

“They had 15 shots in the first period, including a 5-on- 3,” said Brunswick coach Mike Routhier. “Blake was able to keep us in the game … he came up with some big saves throughout. He did a real nice job.”

Brunswick opened the scoring at 8:21 of the second period on a power-play goal from Tyler Sullivan. Cony’s Austin Davis was in the box serving an unsportsmanlike penalty when Sullivan roofed the puck to break the ice and make it a 1-0 game. An assist was awarded to Jacob McGowan.

Brunswick added another power play goal just 2:43 later after killing 16 seconds of a roughing penalty and playing through 1:44 of four-on-four hockey. Parker Wild had the puck on the nearside boards, just outside the circle, and decided to take a shot from the outside angle. His bullet found its way behind goalie Tim Small at 11:04 to give Brunswick the two-goal lead. Cam Heatley was given an assist.

The Brunswick onslaught continued when Matt Brooks skated in untouched, deked, and roofed a puck over Small at 12:28 of the second to make it 3-0 Dragons. Wild picked up his second point of the period with an assist and Kyle Woodruff was awarded the secondary helper.

Cony came out in the third with a steep hill to climb to get back into the game.

At 5:12 of the third, Brunswick padded its lead when Ryan Maciejewski received a nice pass from teammate Dwayne Palmer and put the puck in the net for the 4-0 lead. McGowan notched another point on the secondary assist.

Alexander sparked his team throughout the game, making big saves during penalty kills and even strength.

He made several saves through traffic and saves on Cony skaters walking in and getting clean shots. He was half a minute from the shutout with Brunswick on the power play when Cony was awarded a penalty shot at 14:27 of the third.

As Davis skated in, Alexander came far out of his net to cut down on the angle. Davis attempted a deke, but the ice was covered in snow and the puck bounced on him. Alexander was able to make the low save and preserve his shutout bid.

“I’d like to think I’m pretty good at penalty shots, but he fumbled it and it just worked out in our favor,” said Alexander.

Brunswick added its fifth goal at the buzzer when Heatley batted the puck out of mid-air, baseball style, and into the back of the net off of a rebound save after a tough shot by Maciejewski.

Brunswick ended the night going 3-for-6 on the power play and killing all six of the Cony man advantages, including 1:35 of a two-man advantage in the first period.

Brunswick improved to 2-1 and hosts Bangor on Dec. 22 (6 p.m.), while Cony fell to 1-2-0. FALMOUTH 4

BRUNS. GIRLS

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Camden Carrier scored the game-winning goal moments after Brunswick had tied the game in the second period as the Yachtsmen downed the Dragons on Friday at Sidney J. Watson Arena.

Rachel Moroney scored both goals for 2-5 Brunswick.

Sarah Hutcheon, Abby Payson and Gabby St. Angelo also scored a goal each for Falmouth, which won its third consecutive game to improve to 4-3.