BIDDEFORD — The Biddeford boys hockey team faced off against Cheverus Tuesday night, Dec. 20, 2016 at home with a well-represented crowd on both sides. Play got off to a hot start, Biddeford leading 2-0 before the end of the first period.
Cheverus arrived at the game with a 1-1-0 record. The Tigers, 0-1-0 so early in the season.
Though Cheverus showed a lot of potential to score and had many close-calls in the second period, the Tigers defended the house through to halftime, frozen at a solid 2-0.
If the standing score was any indication, it was a sign of a well-matched pair of teams. Sticks flew before the first 90 seconds of the period were up, prompting an almost reactionary shift from Cheverus, who seemed to slow down and take their time making more confident, well-formed plays between Marco Giancotti, Cam Dube, Mike Hatch and Ryan McSorley in neat formation. The Stag herd casually passed the puck before making sudden flicks toward the net for Biddeford goalkeep Justin Larnerd to block or save.
Biddeford put up two fast sides, the team of Colin Petit, Brady Crepeau, Johnny Korpaczewski, and Joey Curit put up a strong side before swapping in Liam Turner, Ricky Ruck, Ian Couture, Colin Lavigne, and Logan Magnant.
Biddeford put up a tough side against Cheverus in the final period. Cheverus teetered on the brink of dominating puck control, starting the period with a goal 91 seconds in from Dube, who ran a drive-by past the net to flick the puck in behind him at the last second. This left Biddeford with an uncomfortably thin safety margin at 2-1 with 13 minutes to run out, a turnover could be a likely outcome.
Faithfully, Ruck came through with 6:23 left to sink one in the net with an assist from Magnant, setting Biddeford pretty at 3-1.
Not to be outfoxed, Cheverus’ Dube brought a goal home at the 12:00 minute mark with an assist by team captain McSorley. That goal brought Cheverus closer at 3-2 with three minutes of potential left against a tough Biddeford defense.
Biddeford took a two minute penalty with 1:49 remaining, opening a small window of possibility for a Cheverus. The Stags took seized the moment, shooting at Tiger goalkeep Larnerd as soon as 11 seconds after the start of the powerplay. Larnerd’s impressive goaltending saw his team through the end of the game, 3-2 Biddeford.
A home win in sight, the Biddeford fans raised the cheer “here we go Tigers, here we go,” to end the game.
After this first win of their season, the Tigers improve and move on to visit Scarborough, Friday, Dec. 23.
Coaching perspectives
Cheverus Assistant Coach Brad Church said, “I feel good about the last two periods. I thought today was a situation where Biddeford came out and played hard to start the game and they got two quick goals on us. When you’re chasing the game like that it’s hard to win the game.. What we need to take from this game is we have to be ready to go when the puck drops.”
When asked about Cheverus’ solid passes and puck control, Church said, “I think in the last two periods we won the possession game. We had the puck more, we spent more time in their end. We got a couple good penalties earned through that so again, the last 30 minutes of the game we’re real happy with but 30 minutes doesn’t win you a game, you have to play 45.”
Biddeford head coach Jason Tremblay said, “I’m just really proud of the guys. They came out. They worked 45 minutes. They didn’t give up at the end. Cheverus gets a powerplay with a minute 50 left, call time out, pull the goalie, they got six guys. And we came out and we decided we gotta press them and I thought we did a great job of pressing them all over the ice.
pucks likes ruck
Tremblay praised Ricky Ruck, “Ricky’s been playing very well. He’s practicing very hard everyday. He just wants to get better each and every day. It’s his senior year. I told him, like I’ve said before, I think he has the opportunity to get some accolades at the end of the year, but more importantly, to have the very successful season as a teammate. I’m just really proud of the way he played.”

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